


A Million Dreams

by MissNMikaelson



Category: The Vampire Diaries (TV), the originals - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, Curses, Dream Magic, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Repressed Memories
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-30
Updated: 2021-02-09
Packaged: 2021-03-10 06:28:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 43,757
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27799990
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissNMikaelson/pseuds/MissNMikaelson
Summary: Every night she dreams.Impossible things.People she's never met.A love that consumed her.Passion.Adventure.Danger.Heartbreak.She dreams, and she accepts it as dreams.At least until the people begin manifesting because according to everything she's read the human mind is incapable of creating faces in dreams and everyone you see is somebody you've looked at at least once.She knows she's never seen them though.
Relationships: Elena Gilbert/Kol Mikaelson
Comments: 42
Kudos: 171





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so this story has been knocking around in my head for nearly a year now. I've written countless drafts and scraped them and rewritten and rewritten before finally deciding how I wanted to handle the story.
> 
> Basically, I'm in love with this one.
> 
> I'm in love with all of my stories, but this one has been keeping me awake. A little nod to the title there ;).
> 
> The actual story was inspired by the song "A Thousand Years" by Christina Perry (if you haven't listened I recommend it because it's an awesome song), but the title comes from the greatest showman because I just felt that it fit.

Every night she donned the lead role in a dream. She sat back and watched as an entire life unfolded before her eyes, as real as if she were awake. For months she fell into fitful sleep disturbed with images of something that felt so very real.

Every single night it happened, and it had begun the night of the sacrifice.

She could still feel Klaus' fangs buried in her throat as her heartbeat waned; he stole her blood and after a small eternity her heavy eyes had drifted shut. She was meant to awaken in transition because of Damon's interference, but instead she opened her eyes to a lush forest.

Every night she dreamt of the woods and people she was certain she had never met.

_She ran through the forest, leaping over fallen branches and trees. Her heart beat, wild and fast within its cage, as the world merged into a blur of brilliant colour._

_Heavy steps came up on her trail, close on her heels._

_She crashed through the tree line, stumbling to a stop at the top of the mighty waterfall, glancing over her shoulder to the silent forest; every inward breath burning through her lungs._

_Eyes prickled the base of her skull._

_A narrow game path led to the village._

_She bolted for it, feet splashing through the stream. Cold water soaked into her dress, weighing her down. Halfway across she realized her back had been drenched by water splashing towards her._

_She stumbled, slipping on a stone and pitching forward._

_Strong arms snaked around her waist, pulling her flush against hard chest muscles. Her assailant whipped her damp hair aside and lunged._

_She yelped, reaching behind her to swat at him._

_"Did you just bite me?" She gasped, spinning around._

_"That's what animals do when they catch their prey," he laughed._

_"But we are not animals," her chest rose and fell as she attempted to catch her breath._

_"Are you sure?" He struggled to regulate his breathing. "Whenever I'm around you I feel this animalistic urge to devour you," his thumb caught her bottom lip._

_She nipped. Pride filled her when his eyes darkened. Stretching up on her toes she managed to catch the shell of his ear between her teeth and tugged. Something hot and hard poked her belly. She pulled back enough to meet his gaze and murmured against his parted lips._

_"That sounds like a very human urge to me."_

She had started waking up after the first scene; it always left her with a persistent ache between her thighs and a heavy sense of loss in her chest. She would then roll over and fight to return to sleep, both dreading and anticipating the return to unconscious thought.

It was never the last dream.

The mischievous eyed man haunted her sleep.

* * *

She stifled a yawn, struggling to focus on the fry her best friend waved around.

"Am I boring you?"

"Sorry, Care," she shook her head, "I've been having dreams lately; they've been keeping me up… waking me in the middle of the night."

"What kind of dreams?" Caroline leaned closer.

She thought of the most recent involving a stable and those damned eyes twinkling above the folds of her bunched skirt; a flush crept up, sweltering beneath her breasts and in her cheeks.

"Are you having Stefan sex dreams?" Caroline smirked, whispering so her voice wouldn't carry.

"No," Elena shook her head. The eyes were most definitely not those of her ex, nor were any of the features. He _did_ look strikingly familiar though; there was something in the curve of his lip and slope of his nose. "I haven't been dreaming about Stefan."

"But you have been having sex dreams?"

Elena pursed her lips and stared down, inspecting the grooves in the table.

"Sometimes, but most of the time it's not. They're just really vivid, and they feel so real. Sometimes…" She drew her lip into her mouth and glanced up through her lashes. "Sometimes Klaus and Elijah are there."

"Are you having sex dreams of about Klaus and Elijah… at the same time?" Caroline's brows knit together. She appeared to waver between appalled and intrigued.

"No," she gasped, pushing back. The thought of either brother involved in one of _those_ dreams turned her stomach. "They're never there in the sex dreams, but sometimes in the other ones. I keep seeing this guy. This guy I've never seen before, and I think I'm losing my mind."

"Okay," Caroline nodded, shifting to problem solving mode, "why do you think you're going crazy? They're just dreams."

Elena crossed her arms, bit her lip and stared at the table as she thought of how to put her thoughts into words. How could she explain the phantom touches and sweet nothings that stayed with her in every waking moment, nagging at the back of her mind, coaxing her to remember something she couldn't?

"It feels real," she whispered, "like the dreams are trying to tell me something."

"Maybe they're trying to tell you that Klaus is in your head."

"What would Klaus get out of that?"

"What does Esther get out of meeting you?"

"That's what I need your help to find out," she leaned closer, dropping her voice. "I need a body guard for tonight."

"Alright," Caroline sighed, "but I still think a Salvatore would look better in a tux."

* * *

_Find a partner… find a partner…_

Elijah's words echoed through his mind. He could feel his brother's expectant eyes when he didn't immediately move; it wouldn't do for one of the hosts to sit out of the first dance of the evening.

With a deep sigh he turned his attention towards the crowd. A brunette beauty inexplicably drew his eyes and he paused, appreciating the hug of smooth indigo and glittering gold that made her glow. When he reached her familiar features he found a look of pure annoyance.

It had been a long time since he had adhered to the manners he had been raised by without an ulterior motive yet he found himself crossing the room and extending his hand.

"Sorry to interrupt," he smirked, "but I fear my brothers will kill me if I disregard tradition. Would you allow me the honour of being your partner this evening?"

"She already has a partner, Mikaelson," Damon's eyes narrowed.

"You don't make my decisions for me Damon." Fire flashed in her dark eyes.

"Someone has to," he retorted, extending his hand. "Now come on, Elena, it would be rude not to dance."

She glared at Damon for a moment before a small smirk lifted the corner of her mouth.

"It is tradition," she hummed.

She slipped her gloved hand into his outstretched palm and let him direct her into the ballroom without looking back to the outraged look she could feel on Damon's face.

"I hope I didn't overstep," he let go of her hand as they took their places. "You looked like you could use a rescue."

"So glad I project 'damsel in distress' to the room," she rolled her eyes. She dipped into a curtsy. "I suppose I should say thank you…" She trailed off when she finally looked at him and he realized she didn't know his name.

"Allow me to introduce myself," he brought her gloved hand to his lips and pressed a kiss to her knuckles, "Kol Mikaelson."

"Elena Gilbert," she murmured.

He grinned and pulled her into the proper dance form. He had always elected to avoid Tatia Petrova, in five hundred years he had spent less than an hour in the presence of Katerina Petrova, and this was his first meeting with Elena Gilbert, but he couldn't shake the feeling of familiarity as they turned about the room.

"Would it be inappropriate to say you look stunning?" He turned his head to look at her and guided her into his arms.

"Extremely," Elena's eyes narrowed. "Did Klaus put you up to dancing with me?"

"You don't know me, darling," he smirked, settling his hand on her hip, "but I don't do anything for Klaus if I can help it. I asked you to dance because I wanted to share a dance with the most beautiful woman in the room."

"That would be sweeter if you didn't know two others who look just like me," Elena tilted her head.

"They looked nothing like you," his thumb stroked the silk covering her knuckles.

She shivered.

"Do they often stare at you like that?" Kol glanced over her head.

Elena shifted to look over her shoulder and found Stefan and Damon both watching her from their corners of the room. The brothers exchanged a look that made her heart skip a beat. She knew what they were planning when they moved out of formation and towards her as the music swelled.

"They're just looking out for me," she sighed. She took a deep breath and resigned herself to her fate; any second she was going to be moved to a new partner for the remainder of the dance.

"I get the distinct sense that you can look out for yourself," Kol met her eyes. "Do you want to dance with either of them?"

"Not particularly," she exhaled.

"Do you trust me?" He searched her gaze.

"I don't even know you," Elena frowned.

"I swear I'm very trustworthy," he smirked.

She took one look at the mischievous twinkle in his eyes and scoffed. "I highly doubt that."

"Is that a 'no' darling?" He cocked an eyebrow.

She chewed her bottom lip, glanced over her shoulder, and nodded her assent. A second later he took her hand and twirled her out of his arms and into her new partner.

"Elena?"

"Elijah?"

He recovered from his surprise a moment later and fell into step with the other dancers.

Elena caught a glimpse of Kol a few seconds later dancing on the other side of the room. A handful of couples away Damon danced with Rebekah and stole glances at her while his partner blatantly stared at Caroline. The first dream to actively feature Rebekah came the very night she met the Original sister; there had been fire and smoke and a very hard shared bed.

And oh, how she wanted to talk to Caroline.

"Elena?"

She tore her gaze from Caroline and Klaus, tilting her head back the few inches to meet his eyes.

"Elijah?" Her brow rose.

"I feel I owe you an apology." He directed them through the steps.

Beyond his shoulder she caught a glimpse of an older woman staring down at the dance floor. The features slotted in her mind, belonging to the one dream that actually felt like a dream. She saw the smoke and heard the warbling voice whose words she couldn't make out.

"Who is that?" She glanced at Elijah in time to see him frown. "On the stairs?"

"My mother," he frowned. "Elena, I…"

"And beside her?" Her gaze flitted to a man, out of place in his tailored tux. The last time she had seen him, which should have been never, he was brushing snow from his long hair.

"My older brother, Finn," he sighed. A wrinkle appeared between his brows. "Elena I am trying to apologize…"

"Is that what you're doing?" She murmured the words, focus split between him and the array of images in her mind. "I'm sure you'll understand my confusion since I didn't actually hear the words 'I'm sorry'. And for the record that's always the way to lead with an apology."

"I'll remember that for next time," he chuckled, but swiftly sobered. "I am sorry Elena, truly."

Sorry, he was sorry. Jenna was dead. John was dead. Stefan lost his humanity and she was a human blood bag. And to top it all off, the stupid ritual had done something screwed up to her head.

But he was sorry.

"We made a deal and you broke your word." She came to a halt in the middle of the dance floor, forcing him to stop as well. Maybe Kol had thought placing her in Elijah's arms was a favour, but suddenly she wished for the distant Stefan or hovering Damon.

"It's my own fault, really." She stepped out of his arms. No matter what had transpired Klaus was his brother and he always would be. "I never should have expected you to keep it."

She thought she saw hurt flash in his eyes, but she was too preoccupied with her own thoughts. The room seemed to swirl around her, bringing snapshots of three people she knew for a fact she had never met before stepping into the ballroom.

"Excuse me," she forced the words out as she spun on her heel. "I need some air."

She slipped between dancing couples, leaving him staring after her. One person grabbed her arm and she looked up, expecting to find Damon with the demand that she return home at once, but instead of hard blue she found warm brown.

"Are you alright, darling?" Kol's mouth twisted into a concerned frown. "You've grown alarmingly pale."

A blue and silver dress twirled nearby, so she ignored the tendrils weaving under her skin and focused on Caroline, catching the blonde's eyes with what she hoped to be a desperate look.

"I just need to step outside for a minute." She gently pulled her elbow from his hand. "I'll be fine."

She forced herself to leave without looking back, exiting through the double doors she had entered. Cool night air surrounded her, erupting gooseflesh on her bare skin. It prompted her to return inside, but inside were the Originals, and for whatever reason thinking about any one of them brought waking dreams, vivid as life.

Before her eyes a bonfire appeared across which she spotted a woman who looked remarkably like her. She danced and twirled and suddenly a man swooped in; she had seen enough of him in dreams to know Klaus was the one to steal a kiss. Rebekah sat a ways away, staring longingly at the people dancing. Finn and Elijah appeared through wavering smoke. A warm hand landed on her shoulder.

She jumped and looked back, gasping when she found Kol. Laughter shone in his eyes along with something else. He opened his mouth to speak, but the voice that emerged was decidedly feminine.

"Elena?" The effect of a female voice was jarring. "Earth to Elena!"

When she gave no response Kol did something he had never done in dreams. He grabbed her shoulders and shook, barking in that familiar feminine tone.

"Snap out of it!"

The images broke up, fire petering out to the soothing trickle of a fountain and a million fairy lights.

She blinked and Kol disappeared. In his place stood Caroline, holding her frozen shoulders.

"Are you with me again?" She leaned in, tilting her head.

"Care?" She drew a shaking breath and tasted salt on her lip.

Caroline gently wiped the single tear from her cheek, lowering her voice to softer tones.

"Do you need a minute before meeting Esther?" Her grip eased on Elena's shoulders.

"Esther?" She exhaled. In her mind's eye she saw the hazed over scene and her chest tingled; if the dreams were telling her anything they were telling her to avoid a second confrontation until she knew exactly what she was dealing with.

Elena swallowed around the ache in the back of her throat and met her friend's eyes.

"Take me home please, Care. Take me home right now."

* * *

"Kol?"

Slowly he turned away from the window where he had watched the baby vampire whisk Elena away. Elena… it wasn't fair. As if he didn't have enough reminders just looking at her.

"Elijah," he nodded, clenching his jaw.

"Did you happen to see where Elena went?" He stared through the window as if expecting her to appear from thin air. "I saw you grab her arm."

"She looked distressed," Kol shrugged. "What exactly did you say to her?"

"Apologized for some recently dodgy behaviour."

"Isn't dodgy behaviour Nik's area of expertise?" He cocked an eyebrow. He scoffed and motioned to the lawn with his chin. "She asked her friend to take her home," he offered, leaving out the apparent anxiety attack preluding the request. "Why do you ask? Are you out to apologize again?"

"I wished to ask her a favour." Elijah lowered his voice, glancing towards the stairs. "It has come to my attention that mother wishes to speak with her. I wanted her to tell me why."

"I see," Kol hummed, inspecting his cuff, "your apology was selfishly motivated."

"My apology was genuine," he sighed, "and overdue."

"Yet you offered it expecting remuneration." He tilted his head.

"Does it not strike you as odd that mother has returned?"

Unexplained outrage flared behind his heart.

"Mother is a powerful witch," Kol shrugged, glancing towards the stairs. "She created a spell so we would all cheat death, why should cheating the system herself be odd?"

"It's not that she's alive Kol," Elijah shook his head, voice low to hide beneath the orchestra. "It's that she has apparently forgiven Niklaus for everything he's done to this family and wants to be a family again. It's the fact that her first order of business is to throw a party so she can meet Elena Gilbert, a woman whose blood can do wondrous things."

Elijah shook his head and unbuttoned his jacket. "Think about it Kol: when have you ever known mother to have a forgiving nature."

Had they spoken of anyone else's mother forgiving transgressions he would have said a mother's love could overlook anything, but Esther was different. He was half convinced she had cursed Nik not because he was an abomination, they all were at that point, but because she blamed him for Henrik's death.

Esther Mikaelson had not a forgiving bone in her body.

"What does she want with Elena?" His eyes narrowed.

"That's what I wanted Elena's help to find out."


	2. Chapter 2

Caroline folded her legs and arranged the blue skirt over the bedspread to hide the way she sat. The white duvet peaked out in rumples between their joint skirts. Her other hand lowered, passing over a steaming mug.

Elena curled her frozen fingers around the porcelain and looked down.

"Care…" her chest rose slowly and fell again. "This isn't really a hot chocolate conversation."

"I figured," she shrugged as she took a healthy sip, "that's why I spiked it with chocolate liquor and peppermint schnapps. Better?"

"Perfect," she sighed, downing half the mug. She winced around the burn as her tongue scalded.

"You wanna tell me what happened?" Caroline adjusted her skirt. "You looked freaked."

"You remember the dreams I told you about?" Elena inhaled, letting the sweet combination of chocolate and peppermint chase off the rich scent of a non existent bonfire.

"Of course, we only talked about it this afternoon." She nodded, tilting her head.

"Those people I'd never met before… I saw them tonight." Elena shoved books aside from her nightstand, making space for the empty mug. "Esther, Finn and… and Kol Mikaelson."

"You've been having vivid dreams of Originals?"

"Most are vivid, but there's one that's hazy." A pleasant warmth spread out from her stomach. "That one involves Esther and a really bad feeling. I don't know what any of this means Care; just that I couldn't meet her before finding out."

"When did you say this started?"

"The first one was before I woke up after the sacrifice; there was woods and running, and Kol and… well…" She shrugged, half nodding her head.

"Kol's the one you were dancing with before Elijah?" She clarified. "He's cute."

"And in my head mind blowing," she murmured.

"Okay," Caroline bit her bottom lip. "The way I see it there are two possible options for what's going on. Number one: Klaus, Elijah or Rebekah are messing with you."

"Unlikely, since they started before Klaus or Rebekah knew I was alive and Elijah was in a coffin." Elena slumped against the headboard and scrubbed her hands over her face and through her hair. "What's option two?"

"The dreams are actually memories of a past life where you were involved with the Original family and when Klaus killed you the near death experience triggered them."

"A past life?" She snorted, dropping her hands into her lap.

"You're the one who said they were vivid and real," Caroline shrugged. "Except for the hazy one."

"That still feels real," Elena ran her tongue over her teeth, "but blocked. You know the feeling when you're under compulsion and you don't necessarily comprehend what's happening?"

"I know it all too well," she shook her head. "And I think Bonnie would be better suited to help with this. Why'd you tell me and not her?"

"I never planned on telling anyone," she admitted. "I just got so tired and it slipped out." A small bit of weight had lifted off her shoulders when she revealed the truth to Caroline. "I feel better now that you know too."

"Think how much better you'll feel when you tell Bonnie," Caroline frowned when Elena stared down at her skirt. "Unless you don't want her to know?"

She fingered a sparkle in her skirt.

"Elena?"

"It's… it's not that I don't want to tell her," she sighed, chewing on her bottom lip. "I just feel like every time something goes wrong we all go running to Bonnie so she'll fix it, and it's not fair."

"Bonnie does a lot for all of us, and it's not fair to expect it," she set her mug aside and reached for Elena's hands, "but if you want answers before meeting Esther Mikaelson then I think you need to tell her."

* * *

Esther paced around the low table. Every few minutes she would sweep the yards of silk back in order to peer at the spell before resuming her pacing.

He held his tongue as long as possible before sighing.

"Mother, I think it's time to accept the fact that she's not coming back this evening."

"My instructions were clear Finn." Her finger trailed over the spell, tracing one name after the other. "Without her this entire evening was for naught. Why would she leave?"

"Perhaps she decided meeting a witch who has made several attempts to end her life was a bad idea," he suggested.

"No," she shook her head, perching on the sofa. "That is a decision she would have made much earlier. The fact that she was here at all tells me she meant to attend this meeting."

"Perhaps you can do this without her," he suggested, turning a thin needle over his fingers.

"I cannot," she tapped the paper. "I require the blood of the doppelgänger to bind you and unmake you. Without her blood we cannot move forward, and I can think of no other time to have everyone share the same drink."

"Dinner?"

She shook her head. She might have gotten most of her children to partake in a shared drink tainted with the doppelgänger's blood, but they had a tendency to scatter and she suspected it would happen sooner rather than later.

"Kol blames Niklaus for what happened to _her,_ and despises Elijah and Rebekah for how they handled the situation. He remained at my request, but I would not be surprised if he vanished by week's end." Her jaw ached as she clenched her teeth in time with the music drifting up through the floor. "Curiosity alone should have brought her. Unless she…"

He tilted his head, bringing the needle to a stop against his palm and waiting. The longer his mother deliberated the deeper the furrow between his brows grew.

"She couldn't," Esther decided, shaking her head.

"She couldn't what mother?"

"What were she and Elijah discussing before she ran outside?" She lifted a bundle of sage from a shallow bowl and relit it, fanning the smoke around the room.

"He attempted to apologize for something, and she inquired after our identities. Why does that matter?"

"I am likely incorrect about her abrupt exit, but I am going to tell you something about the newest doppelgänger that under no circumstances can reach the ears of your siblings," she looked up sharply, "especially Kol."

He sat on the edge of the sofa, intrigued.

* * *

"Vivid dreams that you think are memories?" Bonnie examined the hanging dresses over the closet door. She recognized Elena's as one from the back of her mother's wardrobe, but Caroline's gown remained a mystery.

"Is that possible, or have I been reading too many philosophy books?" Caroline finger combed her blonde curls until they bounced across the shoulders of Elena's borrowed sweater.

"When did you start reading philosophy?" Bonnie hopped onto the bed. She dragged her bag onto the mattress and pulled out her grimoire.

"I can't have a hobby?" She lifted a single brow.

"I just never thought you'd be into that sort of thing," Bonnie flipped through the pages.

"I didn't used to be into the supernatural either." Caroline smirked.

"Yet, somehow that's our entire life these days," Elena muttered, whipping her hair into a messy high ponytail. "Is it possible Bon?"

"It would explain the faces you'd never seen before," she nodded, "and it's not like it's without precedent. Apparently witches reincarnate all the time. My mom said that's why some are more powerful than others; they've amassed magic over lifetimes, and brief stints on the other side meant they could more easily access spirit magic."

Bonnie came to a stop on a page less cluttered than the rest. A single inscription filled the circle created by a snake eating its own tail.

"This is one of the spells my grams taught me. She said I had an old soul and using this spell would let me see some of the memories from a past life."

"Did it work?" Elena reached out. Her fingers tingled when they touched the page.

"Yeah; I remembered dancing with my coven around a bonfire beneath a full moon." Bonnie smiled. "I could taste the magic and feel the beat of drums under foot. It was awesome."

"So if Care's right then this spell will show me more of these 'memories'?" She worried her bottom lip. "Is it gonna be like dreaming, or like tonight?"

"Tonight?" Caroline shifted on the bed.

"I had another one when you found me. It felt like I stepped into the past; I saw each of the Originals and I think… I think I saw Tatia too."

"It's more like sleeping," Bonnie swallowed. "Knocks you out for a bit while your consciousness goes back in time to your former body."

"Is there any control over where you go? Or when, I guess?"

"Grams told me I'd see memories that had to do with my current state of mind, but you've seen some already. Maybe if you're thinking of one when the spell is done you'll go there?" She played with the edge of the page. "Technically the spell only works if the person remembering is the one doing the chanting."

"Then how is this spell gonna help me? I'm not a witch Bon."

"Actually…" her eyes flickered between her friends. "Grams told me you had potential."

Elena's mouth popped open.

Caroline's eyes widened.

"And I wasn't supposed to say anything until you tapped into it yourself."

Elena worked her jaw as the seconds ticked by until Caroline's gasp broke the silence.

"Why wouldn't you tell me that?" Her heart beat fast.

"Because you can't force magic, Elena, and some people never tap into it. You could have gone your entire life without casting a single spell. Grams thought that if you knew Stefan and Damon would find out and try to make you learn; it would have just driven you nuts, knowing you could do something but being unable to."

Bonnie sucked in a deep breath and flipped the book around. The memories already in her mind were promising; only magic could have unleashed them.

"Do you want to give it a try?"

Elena flattened her palm over the image when Bonnie spun the book around. The tingle spread through her skin, racing up her arm to her heart. She drew the finger around the snake from mouth to semi devoured tail.

"What do I have to do?"

"Place the three candles in my bag on the floor in a semi circle," Bonnie instructed.

"You're not gonna help?" Caroline frowned.

"Elena's the only one who can touch this stuff," she shook her head.

Elena slid to the floor and dug out the candles. She placed them and looked to Bonnie for further instruction.

"Kneel so the first two are on either side of your knees and place the grimoire between you and the middle candle. Alright, good, now you need to read the spell."

"I don't have to light the candles?" She glanced up.

"If the spell works they'll light on their own, one at a time. Just think about the memory you want to see and recite. I can't guarantee you'll get that memory; you're kinda rewriting the rules here."

She nodded once and slid her palms over her thighs, wiping away the sweat. She sucked in a deep breath summoned what she could recall of the dream about Esther, and tilted her head down before beginning to read.

_"Trase kosyon an dwe evite. Kote sa yo te premye moun ki anbrase lavi sou latè."_

The candles flared to life at once before she reached the third syllable. Halfway through she lost the fragments when twinkling eyes invaded her thoughts. On the final word of the spell her eyelids fluttered and fell shut.

Caroline moved, placing pillows to break her backwards fall.

Bonnie rearranged her legs to keep the candles from toppling.

"What's it mean that they all lit at once?" Caroline eyed the flickering flames.

"I have no idea."

* * *

_"That sounds like a very human urge to me."_

_"We shall see," his voice tore out of his throat as a low husky growl. He dropped his hands to cup her behind and lifted her._

_She wrapped her legs around his waist, laughing all the way to the large rock he placed her on. Leaning back on her palms she caught a glimpse of the pool below the waterfall where his brothers were locked in conversation with a young woman; she recognized her cousin instantly._

_"What if someone sees us?" She threaded her fingers in his long hair._

_"Sees what?" He countered. His left hand untied the laces at her back as his right rucked up her drenched skirt._

_"Us," she giggled. Her gown dropped, revealing her flushed breasts to his hungry eyes._

_"Us what, love?" He dipped his head, catching her nipple between his teeth and sucking hard before releasing her with a soft nip. "What if someone see us – a betrothed couple – making passionate love atop the falls?"_

_She nodded, glancing over her shoulder and spreading her thighs for his wandering fingers, gasping when he found the object of search._

_"We could get in a lot of trouble for this," she rocked against his hand, slim fingers reaching for his trousers._

_"Or…" he dragged his lips down her cheek, "… you could get pregnant…" he broke off with a gasp when her delicate hand closed around him. It took him a long moment to regain his thoughts. "Then father would have to relent and move up the wedding… instead of… of… of this incessant… it's bloody hard to think when you do that…"_

_He gave her a mock stern look._

_"Shall I stop?" She slowed her hand's movement._

_He gave her a long hungry look and pulled his hand from between her spread legs, yanking her to the edge of the rock. His mouth covered hers, swallowing the moan that followed their joining._

_She arched into him, raking her nails down the back of his shirt until she could lift it and scratch at his skin._

_Water splashed around them with each snap of his hips, but the sound was thankfully drowned out by the falls._

_She knew he was close when he snaked a hand between their bodies and began rubbing her in the way she had shown him she liked. Waves of fire crashed down on her and by the time she could breathe again he was panting against her neck._

_He pulled out and they stumbled the rest of the way to shore where they stretched out on the warm grass and let the sun work on drying their clothes._

_She rubbed her thighs together, turning her head to the side to watch as he fiddled with her fingers._

_"What if I am pregnant," she whispered, "and your parents still insist on your siblings wedding in order?"_

_He propped his body up on his elbow and flattened his palm over her flat abdomen. A slow smile spread across his lips, but she knew his words were far from teasing._

_"If that is the case then we shall elope – provided of course that you agree," he bent, kissing her brow. "We shall elope, finding another witch – Ayana perhaps, or Finn – to perform the rites, and then I shall know the great pleasure of watching the woman I love grow great with our child."_

_"I see you have this all planned out," she smirked._

_"Oh darling," he grinned, "when will you learn that I plan everything out? There is just one thing I must know before we are to be husband and wife."_

_"Oh," she rolled her eyes, "and what is that?"_

_He looked around them quickly before leaning down and staring into her bright eyes._

_"Are you sure you're not part animal?" He cocked an eyebrow. "I think you've left slashes down my back."_

_She swatted his arm, laughing, and rolled until she straddled his hips with a wicked smirk on her lips._

_"Perhaps I should leave matching scars on your front."_

_"Yes, please."_

_His eager response sent them both into a fit of giggles._

_She brought her hand up to cover her mouth as the thought registered. The memory she had fallen into resided far from the one she wished to see. She needed to know about Esther, but that bright light in his eyes proved infectious. She leaned into the sound and felt the world change around them._

_From her peripheral vision a medieval castle towered above their heads, but the vast majority of her concentration was on the wry smirk on his face._

_"Kol…"_

_"Only joking, love," he knelt in the grass in front of her._

_"What are you doing?" She asked, unsure if she believed him._

_His hands dipped under the hem of her blue skirt, catching her behind the knee. Her fingers dug into his shoulders for balance as he lifted her leg and dragged the tips of his fingers over her heel., slipping the silk shoe from her foot with ease. He lowered her leg and reached for the other._

_Sharp grass tickled her toes._

_"Is that better?" He carefully bent her knee, slipping the second shoe from her foot._

_She nodded, giggling. He held her balanced on one foot for a moment as he looked up to where the laughter danced through her eyes._

_"How's your balance?" Mischief flickered over his face._

_"… It's fine," her eyes narrowed. She wanted to know what he was planning and why she needed decent balance for it but before he could say anything further a masculine voice interrupted their solitude._

_She twisted on instinct to see and wavered; only Kol's sudden iron grip on her waist kept her from toppling backwards._

_"Lord Kol," the man cast them a tight smile, "we've been wondering where you ventured off to." His cold eyes turned to her, glancing towards her exposed ankle. "And who is this… ravishing creature?"_

_The smile he sent her way was a touch shy of gentlemanly; a shiver swarmed over the back of her calves._

_"Lord Tristan," Kol stood with her shoes in one hand and adjusted her skirt, hiding her toes from view. He placed a possessive hand on her waist._

_Lord… lady… fine clothes in place of worn wool._ _The second memory wasn't right either._

* * *

"I don't understand," Finn paced the length of the couch, rubbing his palm across his neck as he did. "Surely the truth would be more beneficial than keeping her in the dark."

"In what way?" Esther straightened her shoulders. "You knew her well, Finn; arguably only Kol and she knew her mind better. She would never consent to aid in _our_ plans."

She made certain to stress the word in case he began leaning towards his siblings.

"She will believe there is a sliver of true humanity in them; that they are good beneath everything."

In his mind he heard his own laughter. Between the transition and finding his beloved Sage she had been one of the few to make him feel normal, like the man he had been before becoming the beast. Words he thought lost in the span of time returned until he could feel the snow beneath his knees and her hand on his shoulder: ' _do not mistake my nature for naivety. I can recognize the wicked intent of a person better than most, so know that when I see a glimmer of virtue in the heart of anyone it is because it is there'._

"She was always naive," Esther went on.

"She was always kind, mother," he shook his head, "too good for any of us."

"Which is why it is better that she remains unaware of her true identity," her eyes shifted to the spell, avoiding Finn's occasional gaze. "She is better off as she is."

As she was, the doppelgänger posed minimal threat.

"If she knew…"

"She would contrive to stop _us_!"

"Only if she knew the full plan," his nose wrinkled when he stepped closer and got a large whiff of burnt sage. "If she believed she were helping you to reverse what you did to us, so that we might _live_ on in peace, she would jump at the chance. She told us once that she wished she could reverse what you had done."

* * *

After the clock struck midnight a brisk wind blew through the open window, fluttering Elena's curtains and extinguishing each wick. She gasped, jerking awake.

Her foot collided with a tall candle, toppling it. Wax spilled across the floor. It cooled in spatters across the hard wood.

She heaved.

Caroline wrapped her arms around Elena, hugging tightly as her breathing regulated.

"Are you okay?" Bonnie knelt, reaching for Elena's hands. "You were out a while. A lot longer than I was."

"Did you see what you wanted to see?" Caroline loosened her grip.

Elena's eyes fell on the open grimoire. "That spell is a mess."

"What happened?" Bonnie pushed her hair behind her ears.

"I was in one moment, and then I'd jump to another one. None of them were what I wanted to see."

"So you didn't learn anything?" Caroline sighed.

She shifted, scooting to sit with her back to the nightstand. "I wouldn't say that."


	3. Chapter 3

She contemplated the bubbles in her glass. They rose, popping at the surface, and she stared as if the carbonation held the answers to the universe.

He knew the risks in approaching her. Indeed he had been warned away, but his curiosity was piqued. The young Petrova possessed a certain something; it spoke to a part of him that he thought long buried.

And approaching her came with the added joy of ticking Nik off: his favourite hobby.

"Penny for your thoughts, love?" He slid into the empty booth across from her, smiling wide when her heart skipped a beat.

"Huh?" Her eyes snapped up, focusing on him through a haze.

"Am I so unremarkable, darling?" He feigned a pout. "Have you forgotten me already?"

The fog behind her eyes cleared.

"Yes." She lifted her glass, lips curved around the rim.

Her heart skipped a beat.

"You are a terrible liar, love." he leaned across her table and smirked. "If your heart beat didn't give you away your smile would have. You do remember me."

"I didn't want to stroke your ego," she shrugged, drawing patterns in the condensation, "it seems over inflated as it is."

"Darling, you wound me!" He clutched his breast. The patterns she drew bore a striking resemblance to runes, but she drew over them swiftly so he didn't get a chance to read them.

"Am I wrong?" Her eyes flickered to his glass as he sipped the scotch.

"I have a healthy amount of confidence," he chuckled, "and you remember me."

"You did save me from sharing a dance with Damon last night."

"You remember me," he grinned, not understanding why the thought thrilled him. In her presence he felt seventeen again.

"Yes."

"You can't get me out of your head," he teased. The words felt truer to his own state of mind, yet he saw a flush spread beneath the hair concealing her throat.

She ducked her head, hiding her cheeks beneath a waterfall of rich brown hair.

"I wouldn't go that far."

Somehow, and he didn't know how, he had struck a nerve.

"Only joking, love."

Her breath hitched.

"I know," she smiled, weaker than before. "What are you doing here? Is it close quarters in that spacious mansion?"

"Believe it or not, yes." He tilted his head. "My siblings and I don't have the smoothest of relationships. Its daggers or dinner, or daggers at dinner."

"How unsurprisingly dysfunctional." she rolled her eyes. "I'm sure you'll make up."

The certainty with which she spoke almost made him nod along, but forgiveness was not in his nature; not after what Nik had done.

"I'm afraid thats not in the cards. Minimal time spent in their presence is better for the health and safety of the general population. That's why I'm out on the town this evening."

"Out an the town?" She laughed, shoulders shaking. "This is Mystic Falls; there's not much town to be out on."

"So I've noticed," he chuckled. "What do you do for fun around here?"

"Its a small town. There's not a lot to do." She shrugged. "Downtown closed an hour ago."

"What do you like to do for fun, darling? There must be something you get up to with your friends." He found his eyes drawn to the lip she drew between her teeth.

"Sometimes there's a party out by the falls, but most of the time we just hang out around town." She folded her arms across the table and leaned in. "We go to the high school games, or just walk around. Sometimes we watch movies, or go out to dinner and shoot some pool."

"Pool?" He frowned, unfamiliar with the vernacular.

She leaned back and gestured to a corner of the restaurant where a rowdy group of teenagers were descending the stairs of a raised platform. A table sat behind them, waist height and covered in green velvet.

"Ah, billiards," he nodded, rising to his feet. He offered his hand and most charming smile. "Will you join me for a game?"

She eyed his hand with a healthy dose of suspicion he suspected came from dealing with his family.

"Why?"

"Why what?" He tilted his head.

"Why do you want to spend time with me? What do you want from me?"

Her sudden gaze overwhelmed him, forcing a breath from his lungs. The world spread thin to the space between heartbeats.

At last he found his voice.

"I want to know you better."

"In my experience knowing Originals leads to physical pain and emotional turmoil," she lifted a single eyebrow.

"Do you really think I'd hurt you?" He felt his mouth turn down.

"Wouldn't you?" He almost missed the way she swallowed and touched her fingers to her left wrist.

"Never," he knelt, taking her hands in his and meeting her eyes. "I would never hurt you Elena. I have no nefarious plans love, I give you my word. All I desire is your company. You're smart, and funny and full of light, and I enjoy spending time with you."

"Really?" She fought a smile.

"Yes. I happen to like pretty little things with sharp tongues," he smirked. "What do you say, darling? Will you take a chance on me?"

He held his breath, hopeful.

"One game," she nodded, rising to her feet.

She grabbed her drink and followed him, putting her glass on the low table to help set up the game. She won the lag and broke, sinking the seven ball.

She put two more balls in corner pockets, ricocheting around one of his, before missing.

"Impressive." He lined up a shot and sank the purple striped ball.

"Thanks; when there is nothing else to do you get really good at the one thing you can." She folded her hands on top of her cue and leaned on the stick.

"You might try taking up a hobby."

"I used to write a lot," she stared at the table as he sank a second ball, "but then my life started resembling the stuff of novels and it lost some of the appeal. I've got a beat on a new hobby though."

Something in her voice startled him, making him miss the next shot.

"Hopefully you find it enjoyable." He straightened up.

"So far its challenging," she muttered, leaning over the table.

"Challenging?"

Her breath hitched before resuming. "Never mind. It's just new."

"Alright," he nodded, leaning on his pool cue and shifting closer when she straightened. "If I ask why you ran away last night will you answer or run away again?"

Her mouth popped open. She worked her jaw for a moment, searching for words. She pressed her lips together to hide her smile and sighed.

"Self-preservation kicked in."

She was hiding something; he could tell. Just as he could tell it was not something she wanted to hide, but before he could call her out, encouraging her to freely speak her mind, a man's voice interrupted them. The sound grated on his nerves.

"You have a sense of self-preservation?"

Kol's jaw clicked, eyes hardening.

"This is the first I'm hearing about it," Damon rested his elbows on the platform's rail.

"I, for one, think she's perfectly capable of taking care of herself." He turned, glaring.

"I don't need you to defend me, Kol."

He thought her sigh sounded fondly exasperated. Though perhaps he was reaching.

"And Damon, I have a very keen sense of self-preservation." Her hip bumped the table.

"You trusted Elijah, went willingly to Klaus, and nearly started up an ill-advised friendship with Rebekah, and now you're here flirting with another Original," his nose turned up.

"I'm not flirting," she crossed her arms.

"To be fair, there was some flirting," he smirked, watching her from the corner of his eye.

"What did I say about defending me?" She peered up through her lashes.

"This does not qualify as defending you, love," he let his fingers skim her elbow, delighting in the shiver it sent down her spine. "I'm clearly throwing you to the wolves."

For one brief moment she leaned into his touch before remembering herself and their audience.

"I don't need you doing that either," she rolled her eyes and focused on Damon. "I'm fine. You don't need to hover. In fact it would be great if you'd go so I can get back to kicking some ass."

"Excuse me?" Kol's eyes narrowed.

"Please," she scoffed, waving a hand. "We both know I'm winning."

"I never lose, darling." His eyes roamed over her face.

"No wonder your ego is over-inflated." Elena turned back to the table, lining up her shot. "Is it that you're good, or are people too scared to actually beat you?"

"Are you implying that people let me win?" He quirked an eyebrow.

"I never said that," she sank a ball. "I merely implied that the average person would likely think twice about doing anything that might deliberately antagonize an Original."

"Ah, so you're saying they have common sense, and that you lack it." He chuckled, watching as she sank another ball.

"I don't lack common sense!" Her shot went wide.

He walked around the table and one of her remaining balls to knock two of his in a corner pocket. He caught a glimpse of jealousy and disgust on Damon's face.

"I'm just gonna go to the bar. Elena let me know if you need a lift home."

"Caroline's driving me," she shook her head, barely sparing him a glance. "I don't lack common sense."

"You're intent on beating me, even though you suspect it's a bad idea. What makes you think I'll let you get away with that?" He smirked, focusing on the remaining balls.

"Maybe it's because I know Klaus needs me, so I'm off limits," Elena circled around the table, trailing her fingertips over the edge until she reached his arm.

"Or, maybe," she leaned over, lowering her voice to a breath of air that tickled his ear, "I believed you."

He missed, sending the cue ball rocketing from one end to the other and into a pocket. He swore quietly and turned his head, meeting her eyes.

"That's cheating."

"Talking doesn't constitute cheating," she grinned. "Pushing you would have been cheating."

"Fair enough," he straightened up, brushing his arm against hers. "Did you really go willingly to Niklaus? That doesn't speak to self-preservation, love."

"I did," she fished out the cue ball. "He would have gone through a lot of people I cared about to get to me. If I had run or fought, my town would have been caught in the crossfire. It was my life, or everybody else; seemed like an easy choice. Damon's still upset about it."

"He's in love with you." The words left a bitter taste in his mouth.

"If he loved me he would have respected my choice and not shoved his bleeding wrist in my mouth," acid dripped from her tongue. She took a deep breath and finished her turn, placing every ball in a pocket except the eight.

"He conspired to turn you against your will and you still associate with him?" Rage burned through his blood.

"It's in the past… so many things are in the past," she murmured and glanced up, finishing the game in one move. "And look at that," she smiled, "I kicked your ass."

"I must insist on a rematch," he leaned his stick on the table.

"I won fair and square," something flashed in her eyes; there and gone before he could make sense of it.

"Everyone knows it's the best two out of three."

"I would Kol," she nodded towards the door, "but Caroline is here. It's girl's night in. That's one of the other things we do for fun in this town. Rain check?"

"Rain check?" He frowned, placing her pool cue on the table.

"Some other time," she clarified.

"I would like that." He smiled.

Her breath caught when he lifted her hand and pressed a gentle kiss to her knuckles.

"Until next time, Miss Gilbert."

"You okay Elena?" Caroline parked in her friend's driveway. "You've been really quiet since you left Kol."

"I've just been thinking," she fingered the edge of her sleeve.

"About telling him?" She jingled the keys in her hand.

"He might have more answers than this spell is gonna give you," Bonnie leaned forward, edging between the front seats.

She knew Bonnie was right. She had even come close to telling him several times at the Grille, but something had always held her tongue.

"But…" Elena chewed her bottom lip. "What if I'm wrong? What if these memories are somebody else's? He loved whoever this person was, and probably mourned her. And if I tell him what's going on and it's somehow misinterpreted-"

"Cut the crap, doppelwitch," Caroline snorted. "You're not afraid of being wrong. You're afraid of being right."

"Okay," Bonnie frowned, "I clearly missed something."

"Yeah," Caroline rolled her eyes, "Elena and Kol flirting, and totally having eye sex."

"We were not having eye sex," she protested.

"But you were flirting?" Bonnie tilted her head. "You like him?"

"Oh, she so likes him," Caroline grinned. "And she's scared that if he knows he'll start to like her for who she was and not who she is."

"Have you considered a future in psychology?" Elena muttered.

"Maybe after journalism," she shrugged, reaching for Elena's hand. "You can't hide this from him forever."

"And you probably don't want to," Bonnie held them both. Her eyes widened, reflecting the porch lights beyond the windshield. "What's he doing here?"

Caroline followed her gaze and shook her head. "Elena, don't take this the wrong way, but I think you're a Mikaelson magnet."

"Hilarious," she opened her door. "I'm gonna see what he wants and then I'll meet you inside."

She shut the door with a gentle click and watched her friend's circle around the back of the house for the kitchen door. When they were out of sight she stepped up on her porch and towards the swing, stopping a few feet away from him.

He rocked back and forth gently, hands folded in his lap. In silence they studied each other.

She got the distinct sense he saw more than she meant to reveal. And in the quiet she bristled, losing the unspoken battle of wills.

"Hello, Finn," she crossed her arms.

"You know who I am." He narrowed his eyes.

"Elijah told me…"

"No, Elena," the porch swing stopped squeaking. He braced his elbows on his knees and looked up at her. "You know who I am. Just as you know who you are."

Cold spread through her limbs, prompting her to take a step back.

"You can deny it if you like, but I have it on good authority that I am correct."

"What do you want?" She curled her fingers around her arms.

"I want to help you, sister," he rose in a fluid movement. "You're dreaming, and those dreams are driving you to madness. You must remember or succumb, but no spell in your friend's possession will work for you. At best, you'll be jumping from memory to memory with no idea how they connect to each other. I can give you a spell that will work."

"Is this to get me to meet your mother?" She tipped her head back.

"She wants to meet you, that much is true. And telling her that this might bring you to her table was what got me the spell, but my motives are far more simple than that."

Her stomach quivered. To make up for the shaking she squared her shoulders.

"Despite a near millennia of imprisonment, I still care about you. You don't deserve madness, or to be a pawn in anyone's schemes." He pulled a thick envelope from his jacket pocket, presenting it to her. "Take this, and make your own choices, as you always did before. Meet with mother, don't meet with mother. Forgive Elijah for whatever he's done, or don't. Tell Kol the truth," he met her dark eyes, "or choose a human life."

"Why do I get the feeling you're not okay with that last one?" She turned the envelope over in her hand without looking at it.

"Are you okay with it?" He countered.

She inhaled slowly and listened to the sound of crickets for a beat before shaking her head. She was not okay with it, and she could think of no true circumstance where she never told him everything.

"What is this?" She asked, shaking the envelope.

"A spell, along with a personal effect that Kol will be very upset to find missing."

"You stole something from Kol?" She flipped open the tab. A silver bracelet fell into her palm.

"You need it to focus," he said, but she didn't hear him.

She heard instead a gaggle of ladies sighing over the simple jewelry, seeing them in her mind's eye.

"What about your bracelet?" Rebekah touched the thin band of silver on her wrist.

"It was a present he gifted to me the night before our wedding," she lifted her hand, pulling up her sleeve.

"How… simple," Aurora's lips turned up in a slight smile. "What are those markings?"

"A runic script," Elena fingered the letters.

"Runic," Giselle frowned.

"Kol and Elena share a love of language," Rebekah's smile was demure. "He engraved the band himself."

"How romantic," Beatrice sighed.

"What does it say?" Aurora studied the markings.

"My heart," Elena breathed, finger tracing the carved runes, "my soul… my always…"

"As if I needed more proof," Finn smiled wryly.

"This was mine," she exhaled, feeling a surge of possessiveness.

"I'm given to understand Kol has carried this with him since your loss, always keeping it near. It will help you with the spell if you wear it; he will notice it missing sooner rather than later, though." He moved to leave, stopping at the stairs when she called his name.

Elena waited until he looked back over his shoulder.

"What happened to me?"

His eyes gleamed in the porch light.

"I don't know," he shook his head. "That was the first question I asked when I woke up, but I'm given to understand it was too painful for anyone to revisit."

"Physical pain and emotional turmoil," she murmured around a half laugh.


	4. Chapter 4

He stepped lightly into the mansion, crossing the floor like it were air. Above prominent cheekbones his eyes sparkled.

"Good evening, Bex."

The muscles around her spine tensed; she knew on an instinctual level that once the screaming started she would be able to trace the events to that one moment.

"What are you grinning about?" Her eyes narrowed.

"I can't be happy?" He countered, dropping onto her sofa and propping his feet in her lap.

He hadn't smiled due to genuine happiness in centuries.

"Grins on you mean massacres," she rolled her eyes. The heel of his shoe trapped her magazine so she lifted his leg by the hem of his jeans to free it and began perusing a selection of lipsticks.

"I haven't been responsible for a massacre in a century," he folded his arms beneath his head.

"You haven't been happy in centuries either," she muttered, flipping a page. From the corner of her eye she saw his easy smile strain. Instant guilt racked her, causing her stomach to turn over.

"And whose fault is that?" His eyes narrowed.

"You know full well that it wasn't mine, so kindly stop glaring at me," her nails cut through the corner of the next page. "I miss her too, Kol."

"And yet you forgave him." He sprang to his feet.

"He was responsible for many things Kol, but not that." She cringed at the thought of defending him after everything he had done. She had been tormented, punished with extended coffin stays and deceased lovers, but the one thing she couldn't blame him for was the loss of her best friend; he never wanted to hurt their sister.

"The only reason she's gone is because of him." He shoved his hands into his jacket pocket.

She knew what he reached for, the same thing he always reached for when her loss struck him anew. She waited for his fingers to close around the cool metal, but instead of calming down panic flashed in his eyes.

"Kol?" She stood, shivering as her toes hit the floor.

He ignored her, frantically searching his pockets.

"Hey," she grabbed his forearms, concern flashing in her eyes. "Take a breath and relax."

"I can't relax; it's gone." He snapped.

"Are you sure it's not in your other pocket?" She reached to check. "When's the last time you saw it?"

He let her reach into his pockets and curled his fingers into fists.

"It was in my pocket when I left the mansion."

"It's not now, so it probably just fell out. Like it did during Christmas dinner in 1911 when you tore the compound apart, remember?" She tucked her hair behind her ear. "Elijah found it in the fountain. I'll help you look. Where did you go?"

She backtracked to the couch, shoving her feet into her shoes and feeling between the cushions.

"I played a game of billiards with Elena Gilbert and then returned." The ghost of a smile flashed through his eyes.

"Wait a second," she held up her hands. "Please tell me you were not smiling because of the doppelgänger."

Elena Gilbert. She loathed Elena Gilbert. First because she had taken Stefan's affection. Then because she shoved a dagger in her back at the very moment she had thought that maybe, just maybe, she could have a friend again. And since Nik had declared her off limits under the threat of a dagger, and mother had decreed no murdering the locals, she hated her even more. Every time she saw the brunette she felt the stirring in her bones to accept the girl as a friend along with the sting of a knife in her heart.

"I happened to have a rather enjoyable time with her."

She supposed if Elena were capable of making him smile like he had she could leave things alone.

"Watch she doesn't stab you in the back," she smiled, sweet as sugar. "Come on, let's retrace your steps."

* * *

Her fingers slid over her bare arm, raising goosebumps. She could think of literally nothing else to do as Bonnie studied the spell and Caroline painstakingly copied each rune from the bracelet to a sheet of paper.

"Do you trust him?" Bonnie folded her legs.

"Do you believe him?" Caroline consulted a chart on the computer screen, cross-referencing with a pdf of the old Norse language.

Elena lifted the spell and tilted her head.

"I… I'm not sure. I know that the bracelet was mine… is mine…"

"I think Kol might have something to say about that," Bonnie shared a look with Caroline.

"I know," she sighed. "I feel like the spell is right too, I can't explain how, but I know. I just don't know if I trust his motives."

"He said he was imprisoned for most of his immortal life," Caroline murmured. She sat up and pushed her translation aside. "I mean… if you were with Kol, and at some point he turned you, then you would have been a participant in keeping Finn locked up. If you did that to me, best friend or not, I'd hold a grudge. This whole thing about making your own choices could be a trick."

"I had thought of that," Elena pressed her lips together. "I do this spell and after it puts me to sleep the house is stormed and someone takes me to Esther, hand delivering the doppelgänger. Last time she had access to a doppelgänger she cursed her children. Who knows what she really wants this time?"

She had meant it as a rhetorical question until Bonnie stiffened, shifting on the bed. Elena fixed her in a steely eyed stare that felt foreign and familiar on her face.

"In my defence," she held out her hands, "I just found this out, and we've been jumping between you having eye sex with your once husband and this spell so it hadn't come up naturally."

"For the love of…" Elena threw up her hands. She flopped back against her pillows with a groan and covered her face with her arms. "We were not having eye sex."

"People doing it don't always realize they're doing it and have to be told by their well-meaning best friend who saw the entire ordeal."

Elena kicked out, connecting her foot with Caroline's thigh. She attempted to shove her friend off the bed, but vampires were immovable when they chose to be. And Caroline had chosen to be.

She laughed and grabbed Elena's foot. "What did you find out Bonnie?"

"My mom came to me. She said Esther came to her." Bonnie fisted the comforter on either side of her knees. "She wants to channel my bloodline for a spell that will kill all of her children."

Elena shot up.

"That should have been the first thing out of your mouth."

"She said she couldn't actually do the spell yet because Esther needed something from the doppelgänger first." Bonnie finished.

Caroline looked from Bonnie to Elena.

"Bet it's blood." She let go of Elena's foot. "What do you wanna do? You're right. It could be a trap."

Elena thought for a moment, mentally tallying all of the vampires with an invitation to her home.

"Elijah's the only Original who can get inside. He's the family above all type, so I highly doubt he would be in cahoots with his mother."

"He did betray you once." Caroline quirked an eyebrow.

"For family," Elena stressed, realizing she was already halfway to forgiveness. "If it had been Jeremy I'd have done the same thing. If Elijah does, for whatever reason, come for me then tell him about his mother."

"So you're doing the spell, then?" Bonnie nodded, standing to begin clearing the bed.

"I'm doing it." She took a deep breath and squared her shoulders, holding out her wrist for Caroline to slide on the bracelet. "And if anything goes wrong…" she licked her lips and pulled her bottom one between her teeth. "If anything goes wrong I want you to find Kol and tell him everything."

* * *

She approached the booth he pointed out while he veered off for the pool table, taking a moment to be impressed by his restraint. She had expected him to topple furniture and not stop until the Grille lay in ruins or the bracelet lay in his palm.

She braced her legs at the head of the table, smirking into the upturned face of Carol.

"Sorry to interrupt Mayor Lockwood, but did you or the Sheriff happen to find a bracelet when you sat down: silver, covered in carvings, about yay wide," she held up her thumb and forefinger, roughly a centimetre apart.

Liz's eyes flickered from Rebekah's throat to her ears, examining the small fortune she wore like trinkets.

"That doesn't sound like it's your taste," she shook her head.

"It belonged to someone very important to my brother. He's held onto it through the centuries, bit of a sentimental fool that one," she nodded her head in Kol's direction, waiting for the Sheriff and Mayor to nod and take in the desperation painting her brother as a man that maybe they could relate to.

Then she placed her hands on the table and leaned in, whispering in a conspiring tone she once used with her dear sister.

"Kol is also a complete maniac," her eyes sparkled with just the right amount of gleeful madness. "If someone were to steal it, and then attempt to lie about it, he would make that person regret their words… and then their existence."

"We are well aware of your family's violent leanings, Rebekah," Liz lifted her chin, displaying the streak of defiance so prominent in her daughter. "And you can threaten all you like, but there was no bracelet here."

"You might try the lost and found," Carol suggested.

"Nothing's been turned in," Damon called over.

He glanced in the table's direction before refocusing his attention on the glass of bourbon in his hand. Based on the way he swayed Rebekah deduced it was his fifth or sixth glass. She expected that to be the end of his input on the matter, but then he swivelled on his stool.

Unfocused eyes squinted. He tipped his glass back and forth, listening to the gentle clink of ice cubes; when he spoke there was a slur to his words.

"Is it anything like that one your brother was carrying?" His mouth twitched, twisting into a grimace.

"If you are referring to Kol then you likely saw _the_ bracelet." She crossed her arms and shifted her weight onto her heels.

"Not that one," Damon shook his head, waving his glass towards Kol.

She felt her brother at her shoulder.

"The other one…" Damon went on. He squinted as if struggling to focus. "Put a delicate silver bracelet in his pocket when he left here. He was real precious about it. It was covered in some old language."

Rebekah started to relax. Elijah or Nik must have popped around for a drink and found it; they'd see it safely in Kol's hands before the moon reached it's apex.

"Nik or Elijah probably took it back to the mansion for you." She started to turn towards the door.

Damon's derisive snort stopped her in her tracks.

"It's not the one you're looking for," he sat his glass down, motioning to the bartender for a refill.

"How can you be so sure about that?"

Rebekah bristled, recognizing the dangerous tone of Kol's voice.

"Because he was leaving as I was coming in." The more Damon talked the clearer his voice became. "If it was yours wouldn't he have given it to you then?"

"If you knew it couldn't be the bracelet in question, why bring it up?" Rebekah took a deep breath and willed Kol to do the same.

"Sue me for trying to be helpful," Damon rolled his eyes. "It must have been the bourbon."

She put out her arm, stopping Kol from instigating a scene.

"Don't," she gripped his sleeve. "We'll check the path you took to the mansion."

"You do that," Damon picked up his refreshed drink, "but first, my curiosity demands an answer. Is it the same kind of bracelet?"

"Do you realize who you're talking to, mate?" Kol took half a step towards him.

"Still trying to be helpful," he held his hands up in a mock imitation of peaceful surrender. "Also, it was the other brother. The older one… dour expression… looks like he hates everyone and everything."

"Finn?" Rebekah frowned.

"Yeah, that one," Damon nodded. He muttered under his breath about there being too many of them. "He put it in his pocket then ran off across town."

* * *

He ran over every possibility as they combed the straight path he had taken, pausing near foliage to pull back leaves and scan the ground. The only explanation he could come up with was that it had fallen out when he entered the Grille and Finn had happened upon it.

Still, he examined every inch of ground and several nearby bird's nests just in case until he had no choice but to accept he was home again.

Home, where Elijah watched as he and Rebekah tiptoed with their eyes glued to the ground. Nik stood a few feet off, watching them as if they had each grown a second head.

"What are you two doing?"

* * *

Esther's head snapped up, swivelling towards the door. She resumed her search when her eldest son rose a single eyebrow, bending to search the small fridge Niklaus had concealed behind a moveable bookcase in his studio.

"Where have you been?" She glanced in his direction. Her fingers sorted through sealed bags of blood. Most bore hospital labels declaring the contents to be AB negative.

"I gave her the spell," he hummed. Countless canvases lined the walls, stacked five deep. He flicked through them, pausing on a portrait completed in oil. The sapphire's sparkling on the bodice reflected in her laughing eyes. He let the canvas fall back and moved to another.

"I see," Esther moved through another handful of neatly labelled rare blood types. At the very back of the fridge her fingers closed around a slim vial. Two block letters marked it as EG.

A tight smile turned up her lips. "She'll be bombarded with memory from every moment of her life."

"It won't be as bad as that," Finn lifted a smaller canvas and surveyed the field Niklaus had played in as a child. "I ensured it."

"What do you mean you ensured it?" She stiffened, freezing with the vial above an open bottle of scotch.

"Her mind would have been a mess," he lowered the painting. "That spell works best when there is something to focus. She'll be better able to cut through the fog of the past with her bracelet."

Her chest tightened. Urgency spurred her hands to motion, adding a drop of blood to the liquid.

"You took the bracelet?" Her voice elevated as she dropped the vial into an open drawer. She only realized how high when her youngest son appeared in the study.

"You have the bracelet?" He gripped the back of a sofa.

"That would depend on what bracelet you refer to." Finn cleared his throat and shoved up his sleeves. The glass on his watch flashed from his left wrist just below his arm ring.

" _Her_ bracelet Finn," Rebekah leaned in the open door, partially blocking the studio so her brothers had to squeeze through the space between her hip and the door frame. Her eyes fell to the half revealed portrait.

"I do not have her bracelet," he shook his head, confident in his ability to speak the truth.

"I just heard mother say you took it," Kol swung his arm in a wide arc. His silver arm ring gleamed on his wrist as he levelled a finger on her.

"Search me if you must, brother," Finn held out his arms, "but I do not have it."

"Do you know where it is?" Rebekah cut through their staring contest. For a split second Finn's stoicism faltered.

"That's enough, both of you," Esther's voice broached no argument, reminding Klaus of his childhood when his mother's voice could sting as harsh as his father's blows. "I was very clear about fighting. Kol, I referred to an old trinket your father gifted me. If your bride's jewelry has gone missing I shall perform a locator spell to help you find it."

Rebekah tilted her head, listening to the gentle skip of her mother's heart. She doubted her brothers noticed, cut down by her tone as they were, and for the life of her she couldn't figure out what part of her mother's words formed a deception.

"And Finn, I want that bracelet returned as soon as possible," her eyes narrowed for a split second. "We are a family. There will be no more arguing or blood spilled. Am I understood?"

A murmur of yes went around the room.

Rebekah caught a glimpse of Elijah's troubled eyes before he focused them on their mother when she asked for the glasses on the cart at his elbow. He dutifully brought her six, but Rebekah could see him working through something particularly complex.

"I'm given to understand this was a good year," she poured out a drink for each of them. "Will you each share a drink with me?"

* * *

Caroline paced the end of Elena's bed, remembering when girl's night in consisted of pizza and copious amounts of ice cream she had to work off at cheer leading practice. A part of her missed it, but another part revelled in the thrill of magic.

She still worried.

"This is safe, right?" Her hands waved around.

"Relatively speaking," Bonnie curled her legs tighter on the window seat.

Caroline spun on her heel, skidding in fuzzy socks.

"What the heck does that mean?" Her eyes darted from Bonnie to the bed.

A half dozen candles flickered above the smoking herbs. The fragrant haze spiralled over the bed, drifting above Elena's head. She shifted in her sleep, grunting in apparent distress as a tear slipped down her nose.

"It's safer than going to Klaus was."

"Everything was safer than that," she tossed up her hands.

"Care, you need to relax, she's only been out an hour." Bonnie said. "It's just like the spell we did last night, only more intense and focused. She's got more control; we just can't let her sleep too long."

"Because a human being can only sleep so long before it effects their health," she dropped, plopping on the foot of the bed. "Nobody's come looking for her yet."

"So maybe that means Finn was sincere…" Bonnie trailed off. Her hand came up to her heart as it thudded harder, pumping like she had just finished one of their more energetic routines at half time. She knew the feeling of magic coursing through her veins.

"Bonnie?" Caroline moved, kneeling at the window seat.

"Shit," she breathed, touching her fingers to her lower lip. "It's Esther. She's channeling my bloodline."

"You said she needed something from Elena before she could do that!"

"Klaus must have had some of her blood on hand," she shook her head. "I'm pretty sure this counts as something going wrong."

But when she lifted her head Caroline was already gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next up Elena takes a stroll down memory lane... literally.
> 
> I'm not gonna lie. I've probably got about 45,000 words of backstory because I wrote most of that first before deciding where and how I wanted the present to play out. Some of it you've already seen, but there is so much more. I probably won't post all of it within this story, but each year makes up a small story on it's own so I'm thinking I might post them as prequels after this story is done, or as bonus chapters at the end of this story. I haven't decided yet.


	5. Chapter 5

She had never expected memory lane to be an actual lane.

It stretched before her in organized disarray. One house bled into another. A demented collage of architecture slapped together at the seams. Spaces between were only visible when she got close to the edge of one structure.

By twenty-first century standards the nearest building could only be described as a hovel. The type of place one would expect to find starving children and miserable parents, if there were any.

Yet when her hands pressed flat to the weather-worn door her senses were overturned. Through the cracks drifted onion and pork, and a sense of warmth so strong her knees trembled.

She looked to her left, drifting her eyes over stone and flying buttresses. A pagoda's curve peeked out behind a gorgeous villa, partially obscuring a Roman Basilica behind. Countless buildings could have resided in between.

But she wasn't getting an overwhelming feeling of love from any of them without physical contact. and it was always best to learn things in chronological order.

She pushed open the door, stepped inside and shrank, vanishing behind an armload of tree limbs.

"Put that away and go help your cousin with the bread."

She dropped to action at the sound of the brisk voice. dumping the firewood in its place by the hearth.

"And wash your hands first!"

"Yes, _äiti_ ,” she sighed, scrubbing at her pitch stained hands. Her mother was harsh when winter approached, but loved her very much.

"Come, little cousin."

She climbed up on the stool Tatia nudged out, kneeling on the seat.

"You have to practice your kneading,” Tatia teased, “yesterday your bread was flat and dense."

"My hands are too little." She caught a glimpse of tiny fingers and wondered how she could have possibly carried the firewood alone. Based on her apparent height she estimated her age to be close to six or seven.

"They are little, but mighty." Large hands lifted her arms so her father could inspect her slim fingers. "There is nothing these hands can't do."

"Except stay clean, Ingvar,” her mother sighed.

"They were clean until _isi_ grabbed them,” she protested, pouting.

"Wash your hands Ingvar. Your daughter follows your example; soon you'll have her digging through herbs."

He bent close and winked, whispering: “I wasn't digging for herbs."

She giggled in delight when he placed a small orange fruit in hews and Tatia’s palms.

"You’re going to have those two spoiled."

"Do not fret, my darling Brigitte," he swept her into a tight hug.

Her mother's somber expression gave way to laughter as she tried to wriggle away from his filthy tunic.

She bit down and licked sweet juice from her lips.

"Finish that and I’ll show you draw to knead,” Tatia giggled. "Its all in the wrist."

Her voice turned masculine on the end. She found herself clinging to the top rail of the pig fence, feet on the bottom.

Loki nudged at her ankles, but she paid him no mind. Her eyes were focused on the brothers as a young Elijah instructed a boy her age on how to wield the wooden sword in his hand.

He rolled his wrist like Tatia.

She watched for a few minutes, laughing quietly when he knocked the sword from his little brother's hand.

Her fingers twitched.

"Can I try?”She rocked forward to tap Elijah's shoulder.

He jumped, spinning to look at her. The fence put her just below his chin.

"Father says weapons aren't for girls," he frowned, breathing hard.

"Mikael’s not my father." she held her chin up. “My _isi_ says a girl should know how to defend herself."

He persisted in protesting.

"You could get hurt."

"It’s only wood, ‘Lijah."

"Kol, Ingvar will be furious if his only daughter limps home covered in bruises." He sighed, pushing his bangs from his face.

"But if I send you home covered in bruises _isi_ will still be laughing at Yule." She smiled sweetly.

"That sounds like a challenge." Kol's eyes lit up. He waved his hand, sending Elijah's dropped sword towards her small palm.

She dropped between the rail of the fence before Elijah could grab it back and swung, catching the matching blade Kol rose in defence.

Then she was sitting on a stool outside her home. In the fading light of the weak winter sun she found Kol’s eyes, bright behind a blossoming bruise: one of four she landed on him.

“What were you thinking?” Her chin turned up, guided by the roughened hands of her mother. “You’ll hardly be able to move tomorrow.”

“It doesn’t hurt, äiti.”

“Lift your arm.”

She lifted her arm, wincing before she got to elbow height.

“I gave her the sword, Brigitte,” Kol piped up.

“I don’t need you to defend me,” she stuck out her tongue.

“Clearly,” her mother fought down a grin. She turned to Kol and lifted his chin to prod at the dark spot across his cheek. “She gave as good as she got.”

“She’s as feisty as her mother,” her father chuckled. He knelt between her and Kol and spread a thick yellow paste across his cheek. “Be mindful of handing her blades in the future, boy. If I know my wife the next time my daughter holds a sword she’ll know how to wield it.”

“Äiti?” She blinked up at her mother.

“Your dear mother was a fearless shield maiden,” he winked over his shoulder.

“Ingvar!” She scolded.

“Is,” he corrected. He turned his attention back to Kol. “You might do better to practice magic with her over swordplay.”

“Next time you’ll be black and blue all over,” she grinned.

“Do we have to?” He sighed. “I don’t really like swords.”

“Then why were you practicing?” She tilted her head.

“Father said it was time to learn.”

“Best not tell Mikael you were beaten by a girl, then,” her father chuckled.

She swung her legs back and forth, and thought. He was fun, and he had an infectious smile.

She tapped her father’s shoulder. “Can I show him your nature spell?”

He chuckled and finished covering Kol’s bruise.

“Not tonight,” he set his mortar on the ground. “The sun is all but gone.”

“Tomorrow?” Kol bounced on the balls of his feet, excitement pouring from him in waves.

“After chores,” he nodded. “Now hurry home before dark.”

Time blurred. The colours of sunset dimmed until a new day emerged from the last, grey and dismal.

She sat, curled tight beneath the bare boughs of oak. Thick braids fell, deliberately cutting through wild curls on either side of her face so her hair obscured the soft pages and muffled each rustle of paper.

In their little corner of the world such treasures were rare. Nobody took the time to write, not with the process for ink and paper being too complicated; when his brother painted he painted on stone or wood.

That was their way. Their stories were spoken. Messages transcribed on available things.

History was memorized.

A book in such a place was both inconvenient and a treasure.

"Esther will be cross," she breathed, in utter awe of what he brought her. Her fingers trembled inside the warm gloves.

"That's why my mother will never find out." Kol grinned. "I must have it in place before she returns from her task with Ayana."

"She’s so big," her eyes widened. In her mind she saw the great swell of her belly: another son. Rebekah would be sorely disappointed.

"She didn't go far," he nodded, eyes darting to his sister who kept watch. "We’ve only got time for one spell."

"Only one,” she whined, clutching the precious treasure, "but there are so many! I want to try them all."

“Relax, darling,” he grinned, “we'll get them eventually."

She giggled; he had picked up the name from her father.

"Why not just ask her for it?" She flipped pages.

"Mother and father both say there are more important things to do. I say thats unfair because Finn got to learn, but they don't care." His smile fell.

"What if I asked?” She blinked.

"They would figure out why fast,” he shook his head. "Pick one already.”

"This one,” she pointed to the sanguimen knot.

"Thats advanced.” His brows shot up.

"Scared Mikaelson?" Her grin lit up her face and he scoffed, eyes glittering with amusement.

"In your dreams Ingvarsdótter."

Somewhere around practicing the spell and accidentally unlatching the gate holding the pigs from freedom her brain registered that things weren't going to work at her current pace.

Piglets ran wild to the sound of their joined laughter. The village descended into chaos. At least until Mikael stormed into the mess and demanded to know who was responsible.

Kol paled. The breath flew out of her lungs in a painful rush. And across the clearing, holding a wriggling Loki, Nik saw their guilt ridden fares.

He passed the squirming piglet off to Elijah and called in a surprisingly steady voice when Mikael turned in their direction.

"It was my fault, father. I neglected the knots."

Then Mikael spun on him. She gripped Rebekah’s small hand and Kol's arm. She slammed her eyes shut as she longed to slam the door.

Her knees hit the ground. She opened her eyes to memory lane. The flow of image and colour ceased, but the knowledge remained along with a flood of information that she ran through like cliff notes.

Klaus - she mentally caught herself from calling him Nik, but only just - had taken the blame for their mischief.

He had stepped in Micheal's path many times for them, for Rebekah, and for Henrik.

She saw for an instant a collage of injuries she treated with her father's remedies, and struggled to view the man she had once known with the hybrid who had made it his personal mission to ruin her life.

Finn knew.

Did Klaus? Had he suspected when he drained the life out of her? Would he have acted differently if he knew?

Tears stung her eyes. She blinked them back with a gasp and forced herself to think of something else: her easy friendship with Rebekah, and the way Kol had reacted when a man named Erik declared his intention to court her.

A jealous Kol had been ridiculously attractive. She had demanded to know his problem. It had been the worst fight they'd had until then, and when she told him to just speak his mind he had kissed her hard under the white oak tree. The next day saw their engagement sealed.

The memory brought a short smile that faded when she saw the long path ahead.

++++

Caroline stumbled into the mansion on wobbling feet through an already open door. Her hand shot out to catch the frame as her knees gave way. She wondered how pissed Klaus was gonna be when he found the dead hybrid outside at the edge of his property; hopefully not much, at least not before he healed the bite the little bitch gave her.

“Klaus!” She shouted, despising the desperation in her voice. She clamped a hand to her shoulder, hissing. The skin felt hot beneath her touch; it contrasted with the chills wracking her body.

She thought she could spend the rest of eternity never experiencing werewolf toxin again and not die a happy not person.

Of course with hybrids in the world she couldn’t spend full moons inside and be completely safe. It would be a good idea to know where Klaus was at all times, just in case of emergency; not because his damn dimpled smirk made her stomach flutter, and not because the last time she saw him he looked at her not like she had hung the moon but like she was the freaking moon.

No; knowing where he resided would be a safety precaution only.

Her safety net appeared, summoned by her cry. And there was that freaking look again, but it only lasted for a second because when he saw what was wrong he moved in a blur.

Then she felt his stupidly warm arms around her, making her feel ten shades of safe and uncomfortable all at once. She accepted the bleeding wrist, unable to keep herself from drinking deeply. All of her concentration focused in on not moaning like his blood were the most decadent chocolate.

Something told her he didn’t need the ego boost.

“What’s all this? Has Nik finally learned to care for someone other than himself?”

Caroline inhaled through her nose. She leaned into his hold as she looked up through her lashes to spy Kol.

Behind her Klaus stiffened.

Kol smirked: the look complete malice and glittering eyes.

She got the sudden sense he wouldn’t mind killing her just to cause Klaus pain. And she happened to like living, was even starting to look forward to the thousand more birthdays Klaus had mentioned, so she straightened her spine while rolling her eyes.

“Unlikely.”

Kol didn’t look like he believed her for a second, which was fair. He did know his brother better than she did, and Klaus rushing to save anyone’s life raised red flags. She could practically hear the blink of a neon arrow above her head proclaiming for the world - or at least his brother - to see his blatant feelings.

“You’re Elena’s friend?” Kol tilted his head, recognition filling his eyes. “Caroline?”

And that, she knew without a doubt, was her saving grace.

“Yeah, and I… _she_ needs your help.” She brushed a dead leaf from her shoulder and watched as it crumbled against the spotless marble floor.

“What would Elena possibly need from Kol?” Klaus’ eyes narrowed and darted from her to his little brother.

“You really shouldn’t worry about that,” Caroline deflected, rocking back on her heels as the Elijah and Rebekah appeared on the grand staircase. Elena had said to tell Kol, she did not say to tell the rest of his… her?… family. “You’ve got a bigger problem.”

“And I suppose you’ve come to tell us this out of the goodness of your heart?” Rebekah smiled sweetly, failing to mask the full persona of a coiled serpent.

“I came to tell you because mommy dearest wants to kill you all and eradicate the _plague_ she unleashed on the earth _,”_ she cringed, quoting the word Bonnie had relayed after Elena fell ‘asleep’.

“Our mother wants to kill us?” Elijah’s eyes narrowed even as his sister scoffed. Unlike her he had no trouble believing it.

“If that were true,” Rebekah tone suggested it wasn’t, “then why would you tell us? I should think you and your little gang of friends would be happy to see us go.”

Caroline wiped her thumb across her bloody watch to check the time, tallying the moments before the moon fully reached it’s apex. She had no choice but to waste an extra moment, and she acknowledged that with a deep sigh.

“One thing I’ve learned since all of you came to town is that you’re really careful with your words. Like super careful. It seems like a safe bet that your mother is that same way, and the exact words she used were _eradicate the plague_. Last I checked five casualties didn’t make up a plague because plagues are highly contagious. I happen to have it, and I also happen to like living,” she glanced down at herself, holding out her hands, “or not living as the case is. I don’t really want my eternity cut short at eighteen.”

“You think our mother is trying to kill not only us, but every vampire we’ve ever sired and so on?” Rebekah moved down the stairs. It made a sick sort of sense, and she didn’t like it.

“And you worked this out from plague?” Elijah looked her over.

“Why does everyone always think I’m a dumb blonde?” She shook her head and scoffed. “Seriously? My freaking GPA is 4.0. I am not stupid.”

“I apologize Miss Forbes,” Elijah’s brows rose in surprise. “I did not mean to imply that you were, but in order for mother to do something of that magnitude she would have to kill us all at once, and as we are not one entity killing us all at once is impossible.”

“Elena ran out of here last night because your mother wanted something from her and she wasn’t willing to give it. My money’s on blood, and that with it she could make slaughtering you all at once a possibility.”

She had expected their eyes to move on Elijah for confirmation. As the eldest, at least in attendance, he would have been the one to look too, but the Originals turned the gaze towards Kol.

The reigning authority on magic.

Had he been a witch like Elena?

“With the blood of a doppelgänger it’s possible,” he frowned. “Tatia’s blood turned us, making it a part of us and every vampire. Mother could link us as one with a single drop, and she would only have to kill one of us.”

“So the doppelbitch…”

“Elena!” Kol interjected, cutting Rebekah off.

She sucked in a deep breath, but conceded. “Elena, gave mother her blood.”

“No, Klaus must have had some on hand,” Caroline snapped, jumping to the defence of her friend.

“A single vial, but it’s sealed away in my…” Klaus trailed off, eyes going wide.

“Based on that look, it’s in a place you found your mother tonight and probably all shared a drink.” Her eyes flickered to Kol’s wrist, dark with bloodstains. Elijah and Rebekah bore similar marks on once pristine sleeves. “I think you already worked out that you’re linked.”

The siblings exchanged a long look before Klaus broke the rising tension.

“Where is our mother Caroline?”

“She’s gotta channel Bonnie’s bloodline and to do that she needs to be close, so I’d say the old witch house.” She rattled off the address, but held out her hand to stop Kol before he could follow his siblings out the door.

“Not you.”

“My mother wants to kill me,” he glanced down at her palm on his chest. Amusement undercut the urgency in his tone.

She pulled a folded paper from her pocket, bloodier than it had been when she left Elena’s house.

“Finn dropped this off tonight.” She watched him unfold it hesitantly, curiosity lighting his eyes. “He placed it, and a bracelet, in Elena’s hands.”

His jaw slackened as he read the spell.

She swallowed and crossed her arms. “It started with dreams…”

He cut her off before she could properly begin.

“Do you expect me to believe what you’re implying?” His dangerous tone paled in comparison to the hope shining in his eyes.

She took a deep breath and nodded.

“I think you already believe it, but if it helps she did tell me about one of the dreams involving you and a castle and some douchebag named _Lord Tristan_ who tried to undress her with his eyes.”

He grabbed her arm before she finished talking, steering her towards the door.

++++

She couldn’t get out.

It wasn’t like slamming the door on a batch of memory. She could throw herself bodily from any house, but she couldn’t wake up.

It had to be Esther’s doing. Something in the spell kept her trapped.

Which told her that the Original Witch Bitch feared her involvement in whatever she had planned for her family.

So she pushed open door after door, refusing to step inside after learning the memories seeped in faster when she opened them and stayed in the safety of the lane.

There was only one memory she wanted to relive, and she could see the door leading to it. It just kept disappearing whenever she got close. It jumped around between the earliest buildings she had once called home, forcing her to run back and forth to catch it.

Once her hand brushed the warped wood and the door literally jumped, finding a new home out of reach on the roof.

She stomped her foot and swore.

“That’s hardly language appropriate for a lady, but given your true origins I suppose it’s fitting.”

Her heart hammered at the sound of another voice in what should have been complete solitude. She spun round on her heel, arms going slack at her side.

“K-Kol?” Her mouth hung open.

His feet made no sound as he approached, but then, they never had.

“You’re friend came for me, your…” he tilted his head, “… brother invited me in, and your other friend helped me enter your mind.”

His hand came up before he rethought the action and lowered his arm.

“Were you going to tell me?”

“Would you have believed me?” She countered. “Dreams about people I’d never met… reincarnation… doesn’t exactly scream normal or ‘trust me’.”

“And now?” He cocked an eyebrow.

“Honestly?” She licked her lips and sighed, looking down for a moment. “I don’t know. I’ve been too busy chasing the memory your mother doesn’t want me to see to even think about what happens when I get out of here.”

“She wants to kill us all.”

“I know,” she nodded. “Bonnie told me, but she couldn’t do anything until she met me.”

“All she needed was your blood,” his hand twitched, rising as if to cup her cheek but pausing inches from her skin. “There were other ways to get it.”

Horror filled her eyes.

“Not to worry, darling,” his smirk felt hollow. “I’ve given Miss Bennett a spell that will stop her. At least temporarily; buying you time to catch that memory.”

“I can’t catch it,” she looked over her shoulder.

He followed her gaze.

“Do you think your memory is faster than a vampire?”

He scooped her up before she could offer an answer and vaulted onto the hut’s roof where he caught the door latch in one hand. Thick fog rolled up when he tore the door open.

Fear clenched her heart almost as tightly as she clenched his sleeve.

“Come with me?” She breathed, meeting his dark eyes.

A thousand years ago he asked her that question when Mikael forced them to flee. His reply echoed her own answer.

“Always.”


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone!
> 
> Merry Christmas. It's a few days away, but things are about to get really busy for me so this will probably be the last posting for anything until sometime next week.
> 
> As of this moment in time there are ten planned chapters, and it should stay that way unless they get really long and I have to split them in two parts.
> 
> As usual I do not own the vampire diaries or any of the characters.

The memory felt different than the ones that came before. It might have been the fog through which things were viewed, slowly lifting to reveal the forest bracketing what had once been their home.

It might have been overwhelming sense of foreboding as she held her shell shocked husband and had him tell her he could hear their unborn child's heart beating.

Or it might have been the fact that she could feel Kol's presence, lingering invisibly as the memory unfolded.

Her conscious mind registered the moon on the declining side of full as it prepared to lower above them. It cast long shadows across his face that still weren't deep enough to conceal the pulse of veins below his red eyes.

He had been fine hours earlier when, overcome by the loss of her beloved father so soon after his little brother, he left her resting in their bed. He had wanted to stay with her, to hold her through the night until the sun forced them to greet another day. She had wanted it too, but his mother had insisted on a family dinner that her sorrow and morning sickness simply would not allow.

She should have woken when he crawled into their bed and wrapped his arms around her, not when he called to her desperately from the threshold of their house.

She traced the thickest line where it spidered across his cheek, gently bringing her finger down to his red lip, wet with a sticky substance that felt suspiciously like blood.

"What has happened?" She moved her hand back up, struggling not to focus on the crimson staining the edge of his mouth.

Energy moved beneath her palm, connecting them together as it always had. She touched the dark stain on his tunic; fingered the dried blood on his chest. Such a wound should have taken him from her straight to Valhalla, yet he stood whole if somewhat altered.

"My mother…" he began, cutting off on a choked syllable.

She could feel the turmoil twisting beneath his skin. It poured out, causing the vegetation at their feet to shrivel.

"Take a deep breath, my love," she stroked his cheek and glanced down, teasing him with a soft look through her lashes: "the earth has done nothing to you."

He laughed then, wet and slightly hysterical, but some green returned to the ground.

Her fingers journeyed back to his chest, lightly fingering the circle of blood

The scene played out from there, detailing the night of his mother's spell. Only when the tears slipped over her cheeks did his voice whisper in the back of her mind.

_I don't remember this darling._

_At least I'm not the only one to forget something,_ she managed to laugh in her mind.

 _Do you feel that, Elena? Under your hand?_ His question sounded strained.

She concentrated, toning out the words being said and focusing on what she could feel. With a jolt she recognized what felt different. It wasn't wrong, or blasphemous as so many stories had relayed, but it did counteract everything she knew.

_Magic!_

The moment she had thought the word the memory of Kol fell to his knees, overcome by a great pain. She shouted his name as a surge of dark magic caught her attention.

Her instincts split between providing immediate comfort and locating the source of sudden distress.

In her current life she suspected almost everyone she knew would have immediately chastised her for playing any part other than the fair maid of delicate constitution, but in her memory those people didn't exist. Nobody had ever told her, the daughter of a shield maiden, to stand down from a fight or let her loved ones suffer; from a young age she had been encouraged to run straight into the thick of things, especially when somebody she cared about was threatened.

So she did what she would have done had it been Caroline or Bonnie, and she knew where to go. Only in the tenth century nobody stopped her from leaving her husband's side and running between towering trees in her linen underdress.

Had she been less engrossed in the unfolding of events she might have asked the presence that was Kol what the heck was going on, but the memory had gripped her tightly, and she could think of nothing beyond the pounding of her own heart and the bright glow of fire through the trees.

On bleeding soles she burst into the clearing and tumbled. She tucked and rolled, looking over her shoulder as she straightened up.

Finn, curled over on his knees, barely registered what had to have been a hard blow because, like Kol, he was too busy gasping for pained breaths.

She ignored the scrapes on her hands and knees, unaware of how dangerous even a drop of blood was in Finn's current condition, and scrambled to her aching feet.

The wind shifted, dissipating the layer of heavy smoke so she could spy her in-laws across the fire.

"Esther?" Disbelief coloured her tone. Surely the matriarch was not the one causing so much pain. She wanted to deny it, but even she knew she was projecting the memory of her long dead mother onto his.

"What are you doing?" She rushed forward to stop it.

Mikael seized her waist. She struggled and jabbed, doing everything she had been taught, but his arms bore the strength of steel.

"Stop!" Tears streamed down her cheeks, hot and angry, tinged with sorrow, but Esther didn't listen. She turned her pleading to Mikael, hoping to make him see sense; even the hardest of warriors loved their children. "She's hurting them!"

"It will be over soon." His tone, normally so hard with his children, was kind in her ear; or what passed for kind with Mikael.

"This must be done," Esther met her eyes. Through the clearing energy flowed, rushing in from Finn and where she had left Kol; magic so strong she could almost see it pour into the stones before the flames. "They will grow too powerful."

Esther took a third stone from a pouch attached to her belt. The obsidian sparkled with malice, sending dread down Elena's spine.

"As will you." Something akin to triumph flashed in the older witch's eyes before they turned somber and focused on her husband. "She must drink."

Her struggle renewed and when Mikael loosed one arm to reach for his wine skein she broke free. He was slowed by the rapid growth of vines across his feet long enough for her to knock Esther over and scoop up the three stones and parchment that contained the spell.

She started to run, looking back only when Esther shouted. She expected to find Mikael on her heels. Instead she saw him locked in a struggle with Finn, psychically fine after having his magic stripped away.

He called for her to go, and she took advantage of his help, using her youthful speed to outrun Esther.

She scrambled for an idea with every laboured step. They would expect her to return home, to tell her husband everything that had happened, but going back placed her in an easy to find location with the spell Esther needed to lay a curse at her feet. Instead of turning north she veered east, following the pale horizon through towering trees until she slipped into the tunnels and was forced to either slow or cut her feet to ribbons.

She knew the path, and she took it with her eyes glued to the ground, examining the darkness for anything sharp. As a result it took longer than ever to reach the opening and step inside.

Her feet crossed the magic barrier, and she allowed herself a moment to slump over, finally taking the time to catch her breath. With a thought three tallow candles lit, casting a flickering light on the roughened stone. Her eyes sought names a few feet above the ground and traced the runes carved in a child's hand.

The cave was _their_ place: the spot they had once used to practice magic during the full moon, and other things when they got older. Thanks to the protection spells placed on the door they were the only ones who could enter and there were few places to gain true privacy in their little village. She knew every inch of space, including the hollow behind a handful of rocks that had been spelled to be impervious to elements.

Once she caught her breath she stashed her stolen things there with every intention of returning to the cave at the earliest opportunity to study the spell and reverse it.

She didn't see much on the return to the village and reasoned that it was because of the uneventful nature of the trip. The woods passed in a blur until she stood near their home and tried to find her voice through the violent shivers wracking her body. She tried to shout for Kol or any one of the siblings gathered around him and thought they couldn't have heard her squeak, but then he turned around and through the heartache plastered across his face she saw concern.

She limped another step and her knees buckled. His arms caught her before she could hit the ground. A warm cloak from one of his brothers covered her frozen body.

He asked if she was hurt.

She opened her mouth to answer his question and tell him what she had done, but before she could force a single syllable through her chattering teeth a wave of magic hit them all. Thumps indicated his siblings hitting the ground, but his body absorbed the impact of her fall. She caught a glimpse of Rebekah's hair before a spell forced her into a near sleep.

She wasn't sure how much time passed before she registered the distant sound of voices, too low for her ears to understand.

 _Bloody hell,_ Kol's voice breathed in her mind. Evidently he could understand just fine the words that refused to register.

 _What is it? What are they saying?_ Every instinct told her to reach out and hold his hand. She cursed his incorporeal nature when she couldn't.

_Mother… she was going to turn you too._

The voices rang in clear after that.

"The spell must be finished," Esther said in a low voice.

"She is with child, a fact I'm surprised you didn't know." There was something unfamiliar in Mikael's voice. With a jolt she realized it was emotion - hardly any, but present all the same; he cared about the fate of his grandchild. "Your spell will have to wait until she delivers."

When Esther answered, it was with an edge to her voice that she couldn't interpret.

"Waiting will give her the opportunity to reverse what was done."

"Then make her forget… make them all forget."

"That does take the cruelty away," Esther agreed.

A low chant sent dark fog spiralling towards her, but rather than settle as it had the night Esther cast the spell it gave way to soft white light.

She shot up in her soft twenty-first century bed with a gasp, reflexively tightening her hold on the large hand in her palm. The world seemed to stretch to the spaces between heartbeats as she looked down and followed the line of an arm up until she met Kol's eyes.

"Don't," she swallowed, recognizing the glint in his gaze. "You can't kill her."

"Kill who?" Caroline interjected in a nervous tone.

Elena glanced to the left where her friends kept vigil on the other side of her bed, but the brunt of her focus remained on Kol. They didn't ask any questions after she met their eyes anyway, instead going silent.

"I think you'll find I can, darling," he scoffed, "or have you forgotten that both of _us_ are entirely capable of murder?"

"I haven't forgotten," she rolled her eyes. "I remember everything, including several things you and I need to talk about. And I want to kill Esther too, but we can't; she'll just find another way back to try and kill everyone again. Personally I'd rather not start a grudge match with her."

"I want her to suffer," he seethed through clenched teeth, "like she made us suffer."

"And she will," her lips curled up in a smirk that she sensed unnerved her friends. It would have unnerved her earlier that day, but that was before. "I have a wholly unholy idea."

Some of his rage seeped away, replaced by intrigue and a devilish smirk. She could be just as devious as him, and he remembered it well.

"What did you have in mind?"

She turned her gaze on mirror, intent on straightening out her hair before marching into battle. Her gaze locked on the blue eyes staring back at her. The screech tore from her throat unbidden.

* * *

The tunnels stretched out ahead, dark beyond the three-foot beam cast by what had to be the cheapest flashlight from her house. Light didn't matter though. As long as she refrained from thinking about Esther's ritual, her sudden shift in appearance, or her husband's - _husband's_ \- warm hand at the small of her back she could navigate just fine since she knew the tunnels like the back of her hand - both versions of her hand.

"What exactly are we doing down here?" Bonnie's voice echoed, bouncing off rough stone walls.

"Breaking the Bennett bloodline will only slow Esther down," Kol reigned in his snarl, but she could feel the rage he directed at his mother who had ceased to be 'mother' with the unveiling of the past.

"That spell broke my bloodline?"

She sounded incredulous, but a glance at her watch revealed too much time had passed. Elena couldn't turn around to offer the comfort Bonnie needed when she learned the truth.

"Think of it like disownment," he gently steered Elena out of the way so her feet wouldn't land in loose rocks. "You denied your ancestral bloodline so you can no longer draw power from them, and they can no longer draw power from you."

"For centuries covens have used that spell to cast witches out." Elena narrowed her eyes, squinting into the dark. "Sometimes the spell was used voluntarily so a witch could leave and start their own coven. There was one witch and warlock in Haiti that used it. They were a part of a cult that worshipped an ancient immortal called Silas and didn't agree with letting him bring about the end of time, so they left their coven."

"What happened to the coven?" Caroline eyes flicked between Kol and Elena as their expressions hardened, and they exchanged a look; the type of look that spoke volumes because both people had known each other for years - centuries in their case.

She took the brief moment provided by the exchange to really drink in Elena's appearance and came to the conclusion that aside from her eyes she still looked much the same. Her face seemed a little thinner, lips a tad fuller, and her skin a shade or two paler that might have been caused by the dim nature of the tunnel. Whoever she had been before - still was? - had to have been related to Tatia in some manner.

"Let's just say they left in the nick of time." Elena turned back to the tunnel and began running her hand along the cave wall. She slipped into a hidden opening.

"What would have happened if they hadn't left?" Bonnie went to follow and found herself stopped at the entrance, watching Kol hold the flashlight as Elena knelt and moved handfuls of rock.

She expected the answer to come from her friend, but Kol was the one to turn into her flashlight beam.

"We couldn't have them actually raise the immortal so we killed them all."

Blood drained from Bonnie's face.

"You helped him kill an entire coven of witches?" She directed her question to Elena as she straightened up.

Elena shifted the three stones and parchment as she shrugged her shoulders. A few days earlier she would have been upset to know exactly what she had done, and to an extent she still was, but she knew what she was capable of just as she knew what that coven had been capable of.

"It was my idea." The stone closest to her palm pulsed; the familiar energy called to her, tied to her soul as it was. Esther had been miffed when she and Kol formed their own coven, but since she never took an interest in his magical education neither cared. Between joining their magic, the binding spells or their wedding and six hundred years of marriage when they weren't shy about blood sharing Elena wasn't sure their souls would ever truly part.

"I had grown rather fond of the world during my 400 years in it," she handed the stones to Kol as they left and began retracing their steps, "I wasn't going to take the chance they were right and risk everyone I loved."

Behind her back she felt her best friends exchanging another look. She turned her flashlight on the parchment as they walked to study the mechanisms of the spell.

"And yes, that included Klaus." On her left Kol stiffened. "Though back then I called him Nik."

They walked in silence for several minutes. She took the time to puzzle over the last line of runes. Had the spell been executed properly there would have been seals keeping the magic bound. Esther had planned to use Tatia's blood to do it; she had probably had some there in the clearing.

Elena had read the spell used to curse Klaus many times over the centuries out of a genuine desire to break it for him, and the spell she held looked identical save for the different stones.

And the fact that because she hid everything in _their_ spot the spell binding Kol and Finn had never been completed.

"Elena? What exactly happened to you?" Caroline's voice broke her from the counter spell she was halfway to forming.

She jumped, ready to say she wasn't entirely sure as she had never seen the blow but Kol jumped in, growling in that voice she knew promised pain.

"Klaus killed her."

Her feet came to a halt.

Spell momentarily forgotten she tipped her head back to look at him in the dark. He must have read on her face that she needed more information; he had always been so good at that.

"You were late to dinner. Do you remember?" Some of the anger melted away, replaced by a bone deep weariness.

She nodded once, remembering clearly the reason for her delay. It was one of the things she needed to talk to him about once they cleaned up the current mess.

"Father was closing in, and as usual Elijah and Nik wanted to run. You and I had just started to feel at home in Italy. You were so tired of running and so was I; I told them we were going to stay."

Her stomach sank. She knew Nik's preferred way to deal with defiance, though then he had been less inclined to utilize it.

"Things escalated, words were said and antiques broken - honestly, I don't remember much of it. Then he had a dagger: said I had a choice to come willingly or to join Finn for the journey," he scoffed. His eyes gleamed; a fact none of them mentioned. "Then you were there, between us with a smile to rival the Tuscan sun, and no amount of supernatural reflexes could have stopped him."

"Klaus killed her?" Caroline whispered, feeling slightly sick.

"Nik killed me," Elena shook her head.

Her friends looked at her with varying levels of incredulity, but she understood the difference.

"He murdered you," Kol's hand cupped her cheek, thumb gently grazing warm skin. "You burned to ashes in front of me. I lost you."

She reached up, holding his wrist.

"I came back." Her soft voice echoed around them. She still wasn't sure how, but she had returned to complete her unfinished business. She blinked away her tears and managed a small smile. "It was an accident, but I'm back now."

"Don't tell me you're going to forgive him?" Kol's eyes narrowed.

Elena sighed. They didn't have time for a fight, but the odds of getting Kol to concentrate now were slim to none. So she reached deep inside herself for the no nonsense tone that once had five Original vampires following her orders.

"Yes," she lifted a single eyebrow. "You and I both know he never would have hurt me. And we were all aware of what happened when a dagger was used on a normal vampire, so if Nik killed me I know it was an accident. For that I will forgive him."

Her eyes settled on her friends when they made sounds of disbelief.

"Sacrificing me in a ritual? That he'll be making up to me for a very long time."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Any guesses on why Elena was late to dinner?


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so this chapter took a turn I was not expecting. I meant for all of the information that comes out here to come out eventually. I had just thought it would happen differently then it did, but sometimes the characters act of their own accord when I'm writing and things just happen. I'm actually really happy with how this turned out though.

Having lived amongst the Mikaelsons as first their neighbour and later their sister she was no stranger to the loaded silence. She had six hundred twenty-six years of memories to draw on - six hundred and twenty really, since before the age of six her memories were a little fuzzy, but that was normal for everyone.

There had been many instances where one of the brothers walked in on a private conversation between her and Rebekah, knowing exactly what had been said thanks to vampire hearing. Many more existed where the siblings had completely disregarded their enhanced senses and barged in on her and her husband during intimate moments.

She was pretty sure all of them had seen her naked at one point or another during the few seconds it always took to cover up.

There were silences following horrific actions like the one when they found out their sweet little sister committed a massacre with her husband.

There had been silences in the wake of happy news. They had all gone still the day she confirmed that she and Kol were going to be parents. Of course that joy had been overshadowed by their flight from their home. She wouldn’t have told them at all until they were safely on the start of the perilous journey across the sea, but Rebekah had caught her in a moment of sickness and out of concern alerted everyone else who insisted on finding her a healer.

Countless silences and looks that spoke a million words, yet none felt as awkward as the one she found herself in. It weighed on her shoulders, pressing her into the ground until she thought she just might fall beneath the earth into the tunnels again.

She shuffled her feet involuntarily and turned her gaze to the circle. A witch’s spell was always complex, but a simple shift in ingredients could easily offset any spell. Two drops of her blood ripped through Esther’s protective barriers in a blink, gifting Caroline - and it had to be Caroline because Elena suspected breaking Kol’s curse might have side effects for his entire bloodline - precious seconds to shove her bleeding wrist into the gaping mouth of the oldest witch in the world.

Elena’s fingers tingled with residual magic she had used to snap her mother-in-law’s neck. She took the life with an ease that had the Salvatores staring at her with open mouths; their’s was a wholly different silence.

An Original must have called them while she slept, or Esther involved the brothers from the start. They both had enough reasons to hate Klaus and want him dead.

As the quiet stretched on she locked eyes with Stefan, wondering if the human girl he had loved ever truly existed. Fragile Elena Gilbert felt gone, like she had had shed a layer of skin to embrace the witch who must have always lurked beneath the surface. She never wanted to be meek little Elena again. She didn’t want to go back.

She wouldn’t.

There were factors from her former life pulling her in, and to survive in the Mikaelson world fragile and meek could not be a part of her vocabulary.

“I think this might be the longest any of you have ever gone without talking since you came back to Mystic Falls,” she broke the silence, folding her hands behind her back. “You’ve got to be fit to burst; I know how much you love the sound of your own voices.”

Elijah’s gaze took her in, drinking every detail he could find in the light of the sputtering torches.

She knew what he saw. The coat she had worn two nights ago when he saved her outside the hospital. The scarf she had meticulously wiped clean of dust because it belonged to Caroline. And the face he hadn’t looked upon in four hundred and two years.

Klaus took a staggering step back, staring at the ghost come to haunt him.

Kol’s hand slid along her wrist and held gently behind her back, warm against the base of her spine.

Finn observed the proceedings with slight amusement.

It was Rebekah who spoke first.

“You killed mother?” Her blonde hair whipped around her face.

Elena cocked her head to the side and smiled, slow, slightly feral and entirely Mikaelson.

“Did you think you were the only vindictive bitch in the family, Bex?”

Then she had a mouthful of white blonde hair and had to let go of her husband to hold her sister’s shaking shoulders. Her fingers dug through the layers of hair until she touched navy wool and grounded herself, but it did nothing for the tears pricking at her eyes. She turned her face into Rebekah’s neck, inhaling the familiar rise of honeysuckle.

She wondered if Rebekah knew, but shook off the niggling doubt. The blonde was smarter than most people gave her credit for and exceptionally observant. If Elijah could connect the dots she would bet Rebekah had reached the conclusion before him.

Rebekah knew.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, pulling back to meet the vampire’s puffy eyes.

She shook her head, dismissing the apology as unnecessary. Perhaps it was. Events happened that made past crimes irrelevant; like returning to the land of the living.

Elena let out a slow breath as Rebekah’s slim fingers ghosted over the side of her face, tracing the circles beneath her eyes.

“How?”

She opened her mouth to answer, but Finn beat her to an explanation. When she looked she saw his focus shifting from her to Klaus and finally to the corpse of Esther that would reanimate soon enough.

“Reincarnation, ritualistic murder and a spell from mother’s collection.” He turned his gaze back on her. “This is not the choice I thought you would make, Elena.”

“When have I ever made a choice anybody thought I would make?” She snorted, amusement bubbling in her chest. Her eyes darted to the circle and back up, pausing momentarily on Esther. “You want to talk unconventional choices Finn? We could compare and contrast. You’ve made more than one tonight.”

“I would think if anyone would respect my wish for death it would be you,” he countered. “I honoured yours.”

“My choice to transition didn’t result in mass murder,” she crossed her arms. Shifting in her peripheral vision reminded her that nobody else had spoken yet. She braced herself for an outburst, knowing one was coming, but then changed her mind.

She had no desire to be around for what was sure to be a shouting match loud enough to rouse the dead witches. She rocked back on her heels.

“I should get back home. There’s a spell to clean up and another to work out… things to find and finish.” Her hand warmed in Kol’s larger one and she smiled. He clung to her as if fearing she might disappear once he let her out of his sight. “Esther needs to complete the transition and then be taken to the tomb under the church.”

The direction brought Elijah’s attention, returning his lost voice.

“Why there?”

“Because if she dies a witch, or a pre-transitioned vampire she’ll return to the other side as a witch and find a way back. Then we’re in the same position all over again.” Her hair slid over her shoulder.

“You found a way back.” He cocked an eyebrow.

“I had help.” She squeezed Kol’s hand. Magic twisted beneath her limbs, ready and waiting. The first shift began at the edge of her vision. She tightened her grip so he wouldn’t be left behind. “Tell you all about it later.”

Everything blurred and brightened until she stood in the dim light of her bedroom before the full mirror. She found his eyes in the glass drinking in the reflection of her giddiness.

“I’ve wanted to try that spell since 1432.”

“You missed your magic,” he turned to stand in front of her.

She tipped up her chin. “Not as much as you did.”

Her bracelet clinked against his arm ring as she shifted to hold his wrists.

“I think that had more to do with me making the choice. Nothing was stolen from me,” her voice went quiet on the end. The high of the night passed in a blink.

“I can hear your heart darling. I know when you’re lying, and you’re lying to me now.” He shook his head and moved to take a step back.

“I’m not lying, Kol.” She pulled him closer. “I don’t think my magic was stolen away. I don’t regret the choice I made; it gave me over six hundred years with you.”

“Elena…” his eyes slid shut as he sighed.

She brought one hand up to cup his cheek.

“Kol,” her thumb traced over his bottom lip. “My heart skipped a beat because I was wrong to say nothing was stolen. Something precious was taken from me…” he covered the back of her hand with his and turned his head, pressing a single kiss to her palm. “… from us.”

His eyes snapped open, focusing on her.

“We were deceived,” her lungs burned around a breath, “expertly deceived. Do you know how Bonnie got you into my head?”

“I gave her the spell,” he nodded.

“Good,” she licked her lip. “I have to show you another memory… of the night I died.”

“I remember that night vividly. I don’t want to relive that again.”

“You need to,” her fingers touched his wrist and slid down to thread through his. “You need to know what happened after you went ahead and before the dagger. If I try to put this into words I’ll start crying.”

“If I have to see that again I will as well.”

“You won’t have to. I never saw that remember? It’s just the time in between, I promise.” Pressure built up behind her eyes. Her ‘please’ came out choked.

It took a long moment before he nodded once and reached over her shoulder for the spell on her nightstand.

They sat side by side on her bed as she took his hands and chanted. Darkness crept in and back out, taking with it the amenities of the twenty-first century.

Sunset soaked frescoes decorated the ceiling above the canopy that she could barely make out through her lidded eyes. Her hips moved up of their own accord, searching for more of the tortuously glancing contact from his tongue.

In the back of her mind a throat cleared.

She rode the fingers that had driven her time and time again to the brink of madness.

_Um, darling?_

_I know, I know: too early in the day. Hang on. I’m still new at this whole memory sharing._ She struggled to focus. _Give me a minute._

_Very well._

_I can hear you laughing you smug bastard._

Her hips continued searching. Moans joined the creak of the bed.

 _Is this what it felt like when I would tease you?_ He chuckled harder, tone darkening to a sinful whisper. _I can feel your arousal, my love, curling down your spine and coiling in muscles you never knew you had._

Her patience pulled taught, snapping.

 _This is my mind._ She pushed him onto his back and straddled his waist, taking him in with a single smooth stroke. _I’m in control of it._

 _Complete control_.

She could feel his smirk as the tension coiled and fell apart. With the arch of her back she managed to break out of the memory and land in the one she wanted.

 _Just when I was starting to enjoy myself,_ he chuckled.

 _Hush_ , her breath formed white clouds in the cool of night. She watched the rising air in fascination for a moment while running her tongue over her sharp canines. _You enjoyed every second of that._

 _Both times_. He laughed. _Is this what I needed to see?_

_Yes; now just go with the flow._

She followed her own advice and let the memory wrap around her until she was one with it.

A strong desire for fresh air had drawn her outside, but she would have been lying if she denied her rising hunger. How long had it been since she had fed? The last throat she had bitten belonged to her husband. His blood was euphoric, but it lacked the thirst quenching quality of a human.

She suspected she fed less than her family. She had seen Nik draining several bodies in the run of a day on many occasions; Kol as well, though that was normally after they were fighting. Typically, he maintained her diet by feeding in moderation and compelling his victims to forget they had ever been on the receiving end of his teeth.

Her eyes fluttered shut. She tipped her head back, taking a deep breath and opening her mouth to taste the air.

Her ears listened intently to the silence.

On her left several wolves moved in unison, stalking animals further away that she couldn’t quite hear; two days ago the creatures would have sent her running for shelter, but the full moon had passed them by without incident.

Behind her came the sound of a horse pawing the ground. She glanced backwards, but the villa was too far away to actually see; she suspected her husband was mounting up for a ride rather than take the carriage to dinner.

On her right tiny creatures scampered through the undergrowth.

Ahead she made out the distinct crunch of foliage under human feet and a human heartbeat.

She made her way forward, sticking to the shadows beneath trees. A few minutes ticked by before she spotted the person responsible for the noise.

The woman wore a hooded cloak and walked alone in the middle of the path.

She shook her head and rolled her neck. First she would feed then she would compel the woman to never act in such a foolish manner again; only those with a death wish walked alone at night.

She flashed forward, pulling the woman with her into the treeline, but she had barely begun to lunge when a pain unlike any she had ever felt exploded behind her eyes.

She fell to her knees, clutching her head; it passed almost instantly.

“My apologies, Elena,” a vaguely familiar voice came from above.

She blinked the stars away and dragged her eyes up.

“How do you know my name?” She sat back on her knees.

“You told it to me,” the woman knelt in front of her, “six hundred years ago. Do you remember?”

“How could I have told you my name six hundred years ago?” She shook her head. “You can’t be more than thirty years old. No witch can live that long.”

“I wouldn’t call what I’ve done living,” she tilted her head. “My name is Freya. Think, Elena, please. Six centuries ago you were hurt, likely by your husband, and he brought you to a witch. Do you remember? I was there. I helped you deliver your child.”

Her features hardened. She stood with sharp movements and turned around.

“Where are you going?”

“Away from you,” she spat. “Count your blessings I’m letting you live after such heinous lies.”

“I speak only the truth,” she followed, stepping into a beam of moonlight. “Look at me and see. You know my face. You know my voice. You know I was the one who placed your newborn child in your arms.”

She heard a rustle of fabric and against her better judgement she turned around. Her eyes were drawn down to the witch’s hand and the tattered blanket she held.

“Where did you get that?” She took the cloth with trembling fingers, tracing the stitched runes with her eyes.

“After Kol took you away,” she met Elena’s eyes, “and after you all fled, I found the house and this beautiful blanket you had made. For the first months of her life I wrapped your child in it every night.”

“My child never drew breath,” she shook her head. Tears she had thought long since gone threatened to spill.

“Dahlia, the other witch, she lied to you,” the woman’s eyes flashed. “She drugged us both and made you think your baby had died.”

She exhaled her denial and shook her head, unable to accept the woman’s words because if what she said proved true then they had abandoned their baby. The daughter she had loved and nurtured for those long months wouldn’t remember her face or voice or hands.

“I tried to bring her back to you once the snows had cleared, but she caught me.” Tears shimmered in Freya’s eyes.

Elena struggled to harden her heart, but couldn’t. A small voice whispered in her mind, urging her to accept the witch’s word as absolute truth.

“Dahlia laid a curse on her to punish my insolence,” her voice warbled. “She has slept these six centuries so that Dahlia and I might wake once every hundred years and live for two.”

Her fingers curled tightly around the blanket as they had the night she returned to her family gaunt and childless. In her pain she cast it aside when they fled Mikael’s wrath, unable to stomach the sight of it.

“It took me two centuries to escape, and a further four to find you.”

“You’re a witch and it took you four centuries to hunt us down?” Elena lifted an eyebrow.

“Every time I came close you would vanish into thin air again, but now I have you and with the both of you I can complete the spell to wake her.”

“And I’m meant to believe all of this because you handed me a scrap of fabric?” A stitched rune rubbed against her palm, tingling with the memory of spells imbued on the blanket.

“Of course not,” Freya sniffed and managed a small smile. “You’re over six hundred years old. You’ve only survived this long by placing absolute trust in your family, correct?”

She nodded hesitantly; no matter what had happened in her life she always believed the word of an Original. They could lie exceptionally well, but not to each other and not to her.

Freya stepped closer and held her wrists, sliding her palms down to the back of Elena’s hands.

“I implore you to trust them now. Go to Finn.”

Elena startled at the utterance of her sire’s name. Nobody outside the family - with the exception of Sage, wherever she was - knew about Finn: sleeping the last five hundred years. She hated that he had been kept like that, and would have removed the cursed object holding him prisoner long ago had Nik not made it clear that whoever took the dagger out would soon find one buried in their own heart. He would never use one on her, knowing as they did what happened to non-Original vampires, but the thought that he might retaliate by striking down Kol and hiding him away for several decades stilled her hand from rescuing him.

“How do you know that name?” She hoped Finn wouldn’t hold that against her.

Freya smiled, slow and bright with a secret in the corner of her mouth. The expression would not have been unseen upon Rebekah.

“I knew his name before he drew his first breath. I know Elijah as well - I would sing to him and tell him stories - but he was but a babe in the womb when Dahlia came for me. Ask Finn, Elena, he was young but old enough to remember Huginn and Muninn. He will remember the winter day our aunt stole me as mother stood back and let it happen.”

She wrenched herself from the memory violently, jerking so hard that she tumbled backward on the bed and dragged Kol with her by the hand.

He landed on top of her, pushing up on his elbows to remove crushing weight from her body.

“Why did you do that?” He whispered, cupping her cheek and squeezing her palm.

She licked her bottom lip, tasted salt, and whispered in a small voice.

“I promised and I knew what came next.”

Her heart beat fast, pounding beneath her breast. She had relived that particular memory twice in one night and the second run through hadn’t made it any easier.

“You believed her.”

“I was going to get Finn to confirm…” His thumb against her lip cut off her voice.

“No, Elena. You believed her. There is no other reason you would have smiled so bright, or why your senses failed to pick up what was happening in the room.”

“If I had just paid attention then…”

“Your back now, my love,” he murmured, pressing his brow to hers. “That’s all that matters.”

“That,” she breathed in deep, basking in the warmth of his presence above her, “and breaking your mother’s curse and getting our child back.”

Elena felt his frown before she saw it and slid her hand over his hip, pressing lightly on his back.

“Finn has yet to confirm what she told you, darling, and yet you still believe this Freya? If she spoke the truth why would she not have told me so when I met her in New Orleans a hundred years ago?”

“Would you have believed her?” She hooked an ankle around his calve, urging him to settle on top of her. His solid weight loosed the tension across her shoulders. “I suspect the blanket burned with me, and without it you could have rationalized that this seemingly random witch was in cahoots with Sage, and utilizing the memory of your dead wife and child to trick you into doing what she wanted.”

“How do you know me so well?” He chuckled.

“Six hundred years of marriage,” she smirked. Then her expression morphed into a more serious one. “Even if she had told you, and you believed her. And she couldn’t help our daughter without me and you. Knowing she lived under a curse, unable to hold her or watch her grow… I wouldn’t wish that pain on anyone.”

“I would have found a way to bring you back,” he swore. “I’d already been searching. Employing witches to make me a weapon to work on Nik and find a way to bring back the dead.”

“I know.” She fisted his jacket and closed her eyes. “I’d have done the same.”

Silence wrapped around them, disturbed only by the soft rustle of fabric when Kol adjusted their position on the bed. She sank into the pillow, momentarily tensing when he rolled away, but he took her with him. She relaxed, happily moving her head from the pillow to his shoulder.

“I can take far more of your weight then you can mine,” he murmured.

“Excellent point.” She felt the ghost of a grin and rolled a little more, draping her body over his like a well-worn blanket.

His arms circled her waist beneath her open coat, fingers dipping into the dimples on her back.

She shifted, warming uncomfortably in the wool.

Kol chuckled and sat up. He helped her out of the outer layer and took off his own jacket, letting both drop to the floor in an unceremonious heap before settling back against her pillows.

She reached backwards and took off her shoes.

“Better?” He toed off his own shoes and arched an eyebrow when she didn’t rejoin him.

“Almost.” Elena cocked her head to the side and pursed her lips. She reached out with nimble fingers and freed each button from it’s mooring.

He watched in amusement as she bared inch after inch of his skin. Her eyes lacked hunger. He knew he could alter the fact with a few choice words - had done so on many occasions - but he merely watched her. He rose when she gave him a look so she could push the shirt off his shoulders then settled again.

Elena dropped his shirt over the side of the bed. Then she crossed her arms at the waist and pulled off her top, leaving only a thin white camisole and the darker strap of another piece of clothing he couldn’t make out beneath the material.

She tilted her head in consideration a moment and then tore off the camisole as well. The action created a mess in her hair, making it fall forwards; she whipped it out of her face, leaving only a thin layer of lace over her breasts.

Her hands twisted behind her back, tugging infinitesimally at the lace circling her body. The cloth joined the growing pile of fabric.

She stretched out on top of him, moulding her breasts to his chest.

“Now I worry you’ll be cold.” He curled his arms around her waist.

“You’ll keep me warm.” Her nose brushed his collarbone as their legs tangled. “And I don’t need Finn to confirm anymore.”

“What have we said about mentioning family when we’re without clothes?” He sighed.

“We’re still wearing clothes,” she rolled her eyes.

“A fact I’m sure you orchestrated for this conversation.”

He felt her skin warm, flushing across his upper body and beneath his hands. Her voice sounded muffled against his shoulder.

“I just needed to feel you.”

His right hand slid up her back to push through the thick layers of hair and lifted her chin.

“There’s no need to be embarrassed, my love,” he brushed a light kiss across her forehead. “I have wanted to touch you every second since spotting you at the ball before I knew any of this. I felt like I knew you.”

“You did,” she flushed deeper. Embarrassed by her earlier fears about his affections before she knew the truth. “It’s soul recognition.”

“What? Like soul mates?” His smile was bemused.

“Don’t be silly,” she snorted a laugh, “soulmates don’t exist. There’s no one perfect person for everyone; connections like that have to be made.”

“If they did exist you’d be mine,” he grinned boyishly, making him look younger.

“You can be a real romantic, you know that?”

“Only with you, darling,” he kissed her nose.

“How do I know you’re not like this with everyone?” Her fingers danced across his arm.

“Are you asking me whether or not I took a lover?” He raised an eyebrow.

“It was four hundred years Kol, I’m sure you took more than one,” she rolled her eyes. “I was your wife for six centuries, and lover before…”

“You’re still my wife.”

“And your still my husband, but my point is that I know how high your sex drive is.”

“And you wish to know names?” He played with the ends of her hair.

“No,” she shook her head. However, many men or women he took into his bed were in the past. She didn’t care about the many; she cared about the ‘one’. “I want to know if I have a reason to be jealous.”

“I have had lovers Elena,” he nodded, tracing her spine with his fingertips, “as I’m sure you have in this new life, but none of them meant anything to me.”

“Nobody?” Her finger traced his jaw.

Kol tipped up her chin, forcing her to meet his earnest gaze which he held a moment before speaking.

“There have been lovers Elena, but aside from a quick romp they meant nothing to me, and they knew it. I have loved only one woman in my thousand years on this earth, and until this week I had given up on the thought of loving again when I met you.” The corner of his mouth quirked up. “Though I’m not sure that counts as loving another now, what with this soul recognition that I’m sure you’re about to explain in great detail.”

“There’s not much to explain really,” she breathed, lost between the beat of his heart and his eyes. “I learned about it when I was on the Other Side from witches passing through; nature lets them escape to live again, slipping through weak points between realms. The people they met before, in their first life, are recognized on a metaphysical level. It happens with humans too, and is usually the culprit for those intense feelings when you first meet a person.”

“You mean like love at first sight, or instant loathing?”

“Yeah,” she laughed, “but it’s not always like that. I can look back now and see instances of it from the last year.”

“What do you mean?”

“Like when I met Elijah,” she shrugged. “I was scared out of my mind, convinced he was gonna kill me, but I also knew that if I tried to make a deal with him he’d listen. I think he recognized me to and once he got beyond the doppelgänger exterior he wanted to help me; he did try.

And then with Rebekah I felt this instant desire to be her friend. I was a little more sceptical of it then though since I’d started having what I thought were dreams.

I kinda thought Klaus was messing with me for a bit.”

“How did you feel when you met him?” His jaw clenched.

“Scared,” she licked her bottom lip. “I also had this sense that what was happening was inevitable. And it was.”

His frown deepened.

She recognized the silent request for clarification.

“When I was on the Other Side I met people. Your mother confirmed what Freya told me; I think because she knew I needed closure. Maybe then she thought it would help me move on and leave that place… I don’t know.” She shook her head and propped her chin on his chest.

She considered how best to explain what she had done before deciding to jump in.

“Freya knew she needed both of us together for her spell, but when I was gone she could never find us until she happened upon all of you. She got hold of a hand of glory and summoned me to formulate a plan. She knew that the only way to bring me back was through reincarnation, but with her limited window of time the odds were that she wouldn’t find me and you before being put to sleep.”

She touched the sharp stubble dusting his jaw.

“I came up with the idea to lure you all to me. Freya put the spell in motion so I’d be reborn and the right age to regain my memories when she woke up. We planned it all out, from the place of my birth to the glamour Klaus wouldn’t be able to resist.”

“You said you didn’t know how you got your appearance back.” He leaned into her touch.

“I wasn’t supposed to until Freya used the spell for my memory and Klaus broke the curse. I guess remembering after the fact must have done it. I would have told you but…”

“Your friends,” he nodded. “Doesn’t reincarnation require witches on both sides?”

“I had Ayana,” she murmured. “I still have Ayana.”

His brows rose. “Bonnie?”

“She doesn’t know, and she won’t until she reaches the Other Side again. That’s how it’s supposed to be.”

“But you orchestrated things differently? You planned for Nik to sacrifice you.”

“Yes, but I’m still mad at him. A bunch of outside variables threw off the equation so he found me too soon. Freya’s not due to wake up for another few weeks. It should have been Christmas before any Mikaelson’s came to town.”

She stifled a yawn and felt her eyes water.

“She never sealed the curse on you and Finn. I can break it at da…” she broke off in a yawn that made him laugh. She nudged his cheek and he laughed harder, shaking beneath her. “Then I can unbind you all.”

“You need to rest,” he brought her head down to his chest, kissing her crown. “The spell took a lot out of you and I can’t imagine you’ve been sleeping well.”

“I need to be up for dawn to break the curse,” she mumbled. “I don’t want you to wait another month.”

“I’ve waited a thousand years, love.”

“I don’t want you to wait another minute.” She let her eyes drift shut, succumbing to the weight of her lashes.

She heard the smile in his voice.

“Sleep, darling. I’ll wake you at dawn.”

“Before dawn.”

“Before dawn,” he agreed, “we’ll figure out how to get our little girl back tomorrow.”

“That sounds nice,” she sighed. Her smile turned to a frown when he rolled her gently to lay beside him. “Kol?”

“I’m not going anywhere, Elena.” He moved, lifting her body an inch so he could lift the bed clothes up to their shoulders. Then he curled his arm around her waist, smiling when she snuggled in close.

“I’m not going anywhere.”


	8. Chapter 8

She awakened slow then all at once to a barrage of delicate kisses scattered across her bared shoulder in random patterns, contrasting the solid presence of his hand.

Beyond the flutter of white curtains a thin band of pale light hugged the earth in soft proclamation of the new day.

Rough stubble scratched supple skin. An exquisite ache picked up between her thighs, throbbing with each beat of her heart. A ravenous need overtook her.

Her legs parted, creating more than enough space for his fingers to press against the damp cloth of her ruined panties.

She groaned low in her throat.

Wth clumsy movements she managed to curl her fingers around his wrist. His husky voice curled down her spine.

"I want you."

He pressed the length of his need against the curve of her backside.

She returned his motion on instinct and turned her hips in a slow circle.

He bit her shoulder in response.

She gasped and rolled her hips again, connecting first with his fingers and then his erection.

He soothed the mark with his tongue.

Her lashes fluttered open, allowing her a second glimpse of sky.

"There's no time."

"We have nothing but time," he murmured, catching her ear between his teeth.

The earnest promise of 'forever' urged her to flip over and capture his wicked tongue with her teeth. Had they possessed no responsibilities beyond each other she might have.

"We have forever for this," she sighed, shifting back and forth a final time before raising his hand. She kissed his palm and then his wrist. "We have until dawn's end to break your curse. Is that not what you want?"

He rose on his elbow and met her eyes.

"The only thing I want more is you and our daughter."

"You already have me," she murmured, nudging his nose, "and soon we shall have her, but this morning I can give you your magic."

"I do want that, my love. I know you can do it," he dragged his finger through the air a millimetre from her cheekbone. "I also know that the moment you break my curse you will break Finn's. Everyone shall know within seconds and we shall spend the day answering a million questions from our family and your friends. Rebekah will lay claim to her beloved sister and another moment alone for days."

"I'm sure Bekah will understand when I tell her my nights are yours." She let go of his hand to hold his cheek, rough beneath her palm, and shivered again. "Those questions and confrontation should be dealt with sooner rather than later. At least that's what I think. If things get a chance to fester they'll simply barge in on us and demand answers.

I'd rather not add my friends to the list of people who have seen me naked."

"They wouldn't…"

"You don't know Caroline very well yet," Elena smirked. "Trust me she would. Now can I get up and put on clothes? As it is your going to have to carry me to the site."

"One more moment I get to hold you," he teased.

Elena rolled her eyes and tossed back the covers. She rose to her feet and watched from the corner of her eye as he did the same, drinking in the coil of each muscle.

"Hey, Kol?" Her fingers skimmed her hip bones.

"Yes, my love?" He raised an eyebrow.

She appraised the length of his body, pausing to appreciate the black boxer briefs and abdominal muscles she planned on putting to use soon. Goosebumps rose on her naked thighs.

"What happened to our pants?"

He retrieved her dark wash jeans from the floor at the foot of the bed, smirking as he rose to his full height.

She sincerely hoped they hadn't engaged in anything during the night. It wasn't that she had any objections to sleepy, middle of the night, sex with her husband; making love in the moonlight with only enough awareness to take in each other was wonderful. As was waking with the satisfaction from an orgasm and only the haziest of memories surrounding it.

She held no objections to gentle love-making in the dead of night; she just wanted their first time together again to be memorable. Hopefully not 'Rebekah bursting in on us' memorable, but something she clearly remembered.

"You woke around midnight, though I'm not certain I should call it awareness," he chuckled, handing her the denim. "You then spent several minutes attempting to shimmy out of these before I took over. I understand why you desired them off now."

"Jeans aren't exactly comfortable," she murmured as she pulled them back on. She held zero desire to hunt for fresh clothes when her jeans were perfectly clean. "What happened to your pants?"

"Ah," he chuckled, fastening his belt. "You attempted to wrap yourself around me and decided you disliked the material. You struggled with my belt until I stood and removed my trousers. Then you curled around me and almost immediately fell back to sleep."

She nodded and hummed, reaching into her closet for a soft white sweater. "Next time I'm that tired remind me to put on pyjamas, or just strip me naked."

"I'm a fan of the latter."

"Bet you are…" she rubbed at her eyes and stifled a yawn.

"Will you be needing this Elena?"

She looked over her shoulder where he held out her bra and shook her head.

"Polite society would say yes, my desire for comfort says no." She put on the large sweater, letting it fall to mid thigh. "I'll put one on after the spell. With any luck I'll have time to shower before Elijah walks in."

"Why Elijah?"

"He's got an invitation," she shrugged. "Personally I'm hoping nobody bursts in, but that's too much to ask."

"Elijah has a little more tact than that."

"Four hundred years dead and then I show up and kill Esther? The only reason he's not already here is because of the instructions I gave. He'll follow them to the letter until Bonnie seals the tomb, or Nik compels her to never leave."

She didn't realize she had slipped to the old nickname until after she said it. She wasn't sure what her hesitation was, or where it stemmed from. In truth he had acted exactly as she planned for him to. Being reborn within her own bloodline had been about more than luring her family to her. She sought true Petrova blood so he could break his curse. He wasn't meant to go for Jenna though. The plan had been Katerina who would have been easy enough to find once she remembered her magic and how to use it.

Really, she could blame Katerina for almost everything that had gone wrong. But how was she supposed to know the doppelbitch would muck up her plans?

"And I love Caroline, but she had absolutely no tact. Neither does Damon. He'd march into the bathroom and demand answers through the shower curtain."

"I swear I'll keep people out of your bathroom."

"Here I was thinking you'd join me in the shower," she teased, reaching for her coat.

He followed her down the stairs. A choking sound drew their attention towards the kitchen where a man sputtered over a cup of coffee.

"Morning," Elena cleared her throat.

He got his breathing under control and looked swiftly from her to him. "Who the hell are you?"

"Ric, it's me," she took a small step towards the kitchen, "Elena. The face you knew was a glamour, but it's gone now."

"I know it's you Elena," he rolled his eyes. "I've seen through that glamour since the first time I was killed. I was talking about him."

"Oh," she rocked back on her heels. "Does that mean Jeremy could see me too?"

"Probably," Alaric frowned. "My question? I might be new to this guardian gig, but I'm pretty sure I'm not supposed to let strange men be in your bedroom before dawn."

"Don't worry, mate, I'm no stranger."

She heard the smirk in his voice.

"Kol, this is my legal guardian, technical step—father, and almost uncle Alaric Saltzman," she waved towards the kitchen. "Ric, this is Kol Mikaelson…"

Alaric's eyes widened on the last name. Her next words threatened to make them budge straight out of his head.

"He's my husband." His mouth opened and closed a few times. "I can see you want answers, and I swear I'll tell you and Jeremy everything later, but right now I have to go do a spell."

She reached for the door and walked outside. At the bottom of the steps she froze, eyes drawn to the dark figure in the driveway; he moved into a beam of light.

"Jeremy?"

"Hey," he called in a tired voice, adjusting his duffle bag. "Who's that?"

Before she could answer a strangled cry came from inside the house.

"Husband?!"

Jeremy's eyes widened.

"Tell you later, Jer. We gotta go."

Kol had swept her into his arms, taking off before Jeremy could utter a word. The world whipped by in muted colours of brown and green; she closed her eyes to combat her sudden motion sickness, resting her head on Kol's shoulder until he stopped moving.

A thousand years earlier the desolate spot housed the white oak that gifted them immortality while threatening to yank it away. In the twenty-first century only the - and she almost laughed thinking the word - cauldron remained atop a large stone.

The remnant of an ancient fire pit beckoned. In silence Kol gathered wood and created a neat pyramid; she lit it with a thought, making a mental note to locate another hand of glory and soon.

She unfolded the spell and laid out the two stones that thrummed with held energy, catching his amused eye over the flames; his mouth quirked upwards in a familiar smirk.

"What?"

"You have a lot of explaining to do."

"I know," she worried her bottom lip.

A streak of sunlight lit the forest floor, staining her fingers. Shadow passed over a split second before his hand held hers.

His lips brushed over her temple, words caressing her skin.

"Anyone who can't accept you for who you are is a fool. It's their loss if they let you slip through their fingers; I certainly won't be doing that again."

She allowed a second to accept the comfort but no more time as dawn surrounded them. With both hands extended over the stones she closed her eyes and began to chant.

The energies pulsed in their prison, straining to reach out to her.

* * *

"How exactly is she meant to stay put?" Rebekah crossed her arms, tapping her foot in the middle of the pentagram. "I don't put much faith in Nik; he'll have us all rotting in coffins again before we can blink."

"Had you refrained from interfering this would have all been over by now," Esther pressed her hands to the barrier. The simple spell would only last until the next moonrise.

"The casual manner in which you discuss the premeditated murder of your own children shocks me." Elijah's hands clenched in his jacket pocket, cutting white half crescents across his palms.

Dark veins writhed beneath her eyes in pathological response to Bonnie's blood still dripping from her fingertips.

"You have all lived too long."

"I haven't lived at all," Rebekah shrieked, gathering the full attention of her brother's. Elijah and Klaus had the decency to lower their eyes, ashamed in part for the actions taken to protect her over the centuries.

Bonnie shifted on her heels. She tipped her chin up a fraction and glanced through the corner of her eye to Caroline.

"I feel like we're getting a little off topic."

"Miss Bennett is correct," Finn cleared his throat, nodding in her direction. "We need a method for permanently securing mother, lest she attempt to remove every vampire from the world again."

"Perhaps you should not be privy to this conversation," Klaus' growled, tone dripping malice, "considering how eager you were to work with her."

"When I thought her plans were to kill us," his eyes narrowed, "she never mentioned that our deaths would result in the deaths of everyone."

"And that should make a difference to you?"

"As a matter of fact it does. You left me to rot. You all left me to rot for 900 years. Why should I not want you dead for that?"

"If you are so angry why help Elena?" Klaus' eyes flashed gold.

"Call it an assured sense that she had no part in leaving me to that fate."

"He's got a point," Rebekah shifted, resisting the urge to hold her hands against her stomach. From the moment Caroline revealed Esther's intentions a knot formed deep inside. Her own mother - a woman who should love them all without condition - desired their deaths. She wanted to vomit.

"She never removed the dagger." Klaus snapped.

"Only because you threatened Kol," she murmured.

Caroline glanced at Bonnie and then the Originals, standing around various points of the pentagram. Sunlight streamed through the whole above their heads. Thankfully it was the weekend so she wouldn't have to come up with an excuse to excuse her extracurricular activity of locking up a psycho witch.

"Is it just me, or could all of you really benefit from some therapy?"

"Care, this is probably the most dysfunctional family in history," Bonnie bit down her smirk, "they'd send any therapist running for the hills. We'd find the poor shrink half mad and muttering about the nice practice they used to run."

"We're not that bad, love," Klaus rolled his eyes.

Caroline arched an eyebrow and raised her hands, ticking off a handful of problems with a raised finger.

"Mommy issues, daddy issues, infanticide, at least one massacre, daggers…"

"Are you quite finished?"

"No," she lifted her eyes to Klaus. "You also murdered your brother's wife… twice."

The fire in his gaze extinguished in a wave of guilt and grief. She caught herself before she could do something stupid, like give him a hug.

"Any therapist would have to be compelled," Elijah's voice broke through the sudden silence.

Rebekah nodded her agreement. "It's much easier, and more satisfying, to remove internal organs. Maybe a few limbs."

"We're you always like this?" Caroline crossed her arms and tilted her head. In her peripheral vision Finn stiffened.

The question took the siblings by surprise. Rebekah glanced towards her brothers then shook her head.

"We've grown more violent these last few centuries," she admitted.

"Why?" Bonnie scuffed her heel on stone.

"Vampires are a scourge, a disease on this earth…"

"And now you're one of them," Bonnie snapped, patience breaking thin. "Being a vampire doesn't automatically make a person a monster. And even if it did nature has had a thousand years to adjust. You can't just wipe out a species and expect everything to go back to normal. That kind of imbalance could destroy the world, and it's not exactly in a good spot right now to handle extra destruction."

"Will nothing you see convince you that my spell, made in error, must be corrected?" She snarled, beating against the barrier. "You have watched the destruction they've caused from life and through the veil of the Other Side, yet you persist in resisting me."

"What are you talking about?" Bonnie took a small step back, unnerved by the venom in the older witch's eyes.

"You were there at the beginning. You witnessed everything in between. And it was your magic meant to aid in the end, as it did at the start."

"Wait a second," she held out her hands, palms up, "are you saying I was alive in the tenth century?"

"Well, at this point we've established that past lives are a thing," Caroline's eyes narrowed. "How many witches lived here?"

"Mother, Finn, Kol and Elena, Ingvar and…" Elijah trailed off, casting a questioning glance in his mother's direction. "Ayana?"

"Ayana?" Rebekah paused when she saw Finn lean heavily on the wall, but focused her attention on the young witch. "Ayana reborn in the same place as Elena? And both of them in their own bloodlines?"

"Coincidence?" Caroline suggested.

"I don't believe in coincidences," Rebekah tilted her head.

"And I don't believe you were all violent because you were vampires," Bonnie rolled her eyes, making a note to ask Elena about Elijah's theory later. "Why the shift?"

"In short?" Rebekah fiddled with the end of her scarf. "We lost Elena. She had a very… human influence on us."

"The girl who slaughtered a coven of witches?"

"Her massacres were few, one really," she pursed her lips. "And she turned after we learned how to compel. Killing to survive was never a necessity for her, and as such she did not begin her new life forced to desensitize herself to violence."

"We are once again veering off topic," Klaus cleared his throat. "How are we to keep her in their permanently? Compulsion can always be broken; even fought through if one's mind is strong."

"What about speeding up desiccation?" Elijah suggested.

"That's no good; I would have to stop a human heart for that."

"You know this how?" Klaus turned his attention to the young witch.

"It's how Abby stopped Mikael." Her fingers dug into her upper arms. "We need a boundary spell that won't break. Something nearly impossible to break. When Emily sealed the tomb she used a comet. Are there any set to fly over head soon? I don't want to use the full moon; it comes around to often."

"You might try binding the boundary to an immortal who can't die."

Almost in unison, everybody looked up, searching the bright opening for the source of the voice.

"Rather ingenious, darling."

"What can I say? I'm still a prodigy."

"That you are."

The air shifted as Kol leapt down with Elena in his arms, bending his knees to absorb the impact.

She released a huff of air and rolled her eyes, pushing her hair from her face.

"You know, there were stairs?" She waved beyond Klaus to the stone steps.

"Yes, but you're fully capable of walking down stairs. And as we both know I'll look for any excuse to hold you."

Rebekah made a gagging noise and a show of checking her watch.

"It only took them a night to become nauseating."

"We should have placed bets," Elijah snickered.

"You all would have lost; they were nauseating when we were down in the tunnels." Caroline scoffed.

Elena set her feet on the floor. An exasperated sigh escaped, undercut with fondness, when Kol snaked his arms around her waist. "You're going to be really clingy for a while, huh?"

"At least a century," he hummed, fingers splayed over her abdomen.

"She'll be sick of you within a year," Rebekah shook her head.

"I'm not worried," Elena grinned, "his attention's gonna be split pretty soon." Her eyes roamed the room to settle on Finn, staring into his palm as the other touched the stone wall in something close to reverence. "Alright there Finn?"

The call of his name broke him from his thoughts. He lifted his eyes to focus on her, wonder glimmering in the depths of his gaze; she would have to show him that stolen memory soon.

"What have you done?"

Smugness tightened her expression that she turned towards Esther.

"The question is: what did I undo?" Her smile turned soft for Finn. "Turns out we were all missing a few memories."

She noted the glaring absence in the lack of screaming.

"Where are Stefan and Damon?"

"They went looking for you," Bonnie turned to face the couple, "about an hour ago."

"Ugh," she shut her eyes, dropping her head on Kol's shoulder, "they're gonna be in my living room."

"I could…"

"You're not killing my ex-boyfriend and his brother," she lightly smacked Kol's hand.

"What about maiming?"

"No."

"Just one blow?"

"Kol…"

"The man slept with my wife," he squeezed her waist.

"And your sister," Caroline coughed.

"Not helping, Care." A shudder went through Elena, rocking her from head to toe.

"Helping?" Caroline scoffed. "Who said anything about helping? I'm involved solely for the drama, plus I kinda wanna see Damon get his ass handed to him."

"Damon?" Kol frowned. "I believed Stefan to be the former lover."

"He is," Caroline grinned. Darkness passed behind her eyes. "Damon's been trying to get in her pants since he came to town. I'll bet he's still gonna try. He's obsessive."

"Should he try he'll learn very fast just how possessive Kol can be," Rebekah rolled her eyes. "And I don't want you killing Stefan either."

"I suppose if they understand what they can and cannot have I could leave them be, but I reserve the right to strike back should they attempt to come between my lovely bride and I."

Elena rolled her eyes.

"I haven't been a bride in a thousand years."

"You're as lovely now as you were then."

"But not a newlywed."

"Then explain why everything feels so wondrously new." His nose skimmed her throat.

"That would be your newly returned magic," she giggled.

"Your explanation fails to account for last night, or the one before."

"Get a bloody room!" Rebekah crossed her arms and rolled her eyes.

Kol smirked, lifting his head from where he had laid a kiss on her soft skin.

"We intend to," he stepped back from Elena reluctantly, gesturing towards the tomb with all the care he would have taken to wave off a troublesome fly, "just as soon as mother is permanently sealed in that one."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What did you think of this chapter?
> 
> I thought it would be an interesting twist if the rings had an effect on Jeremy and Alaric. They've seen Elena as herself for months. Ric never thought to question it because every picture of Elena lacked the glamour too and it was early enough I think that he wouldn't have questioned it since he'd only just met her and as a teacher he saw hundreds of teenagers a day.
> 
> As for Jeremy... he thought he was losing it, and actually asked Elena once what happened to her eyes to which Elena responded with 'I know I haven't been sleeping well, but that's no reason to insult me'
> 
> or something similar.


	9. Chapter 9

"Okay, I assume you've got some questions," Elena sighed, weariness creeping over her limbs. She sank down, releasing her weight to one of the overstuffed sofa's decorating the mansions family room.

Who could have guessed that months of sleepless nights coupled with days of intense magics not touched in a millennia would take such a toll on her body?

She felt, at once, ready to take on the world and sink into a soft mattress, stretching out for a well-earned massage that would transition into lovemaking with a stray kiss here and there.

"I should like to revisit Rebekah's first question." Her heart skipped a beat, shocked into action by Klaus' voice uttering the first words; he hadn't managed a syllable in her direction since she broke his mother's neck. "How has your face returned?"

"Does it matter?" Kol asked.

He claimed the corner on her left, reaching for her hand as Rebekah occupied her right side. Elijah and Klaus faced the trio from a set of club chairs, separate but close. Finn leaned back on a love seat, seemingly uninterested in the proceedings.

"It matters," his eyes narrowed, glaring at his younger brother. "A glamour has clearly come into play."

"If you know the how then why are you asking?" Elena tilted her head. She caught a glimpse of Rebekah's expression and smiled, knowing the blonde would get a kick out of the actual explanation.

"I want to know why you have done this to yourself now." His knuckled turned white, gripping his glass to the point of breaking.

"I didn't do this now," she shook her head. "The glamour was placed before I was reborn."

"Wait a second," Elijah shifted, leaning closer to the coffee table that separated them. "Are you saying the doppelgänger was the glamour?"

"This is clearly the glamour," Klaus snapped, "because the ritual worked."

Elena glanced at Kol in time to catch his smirk. She gave an imperceptible nod for him to explain, letting her voice rest a bit after giving the same answers to her family and the Salvatores; Damon hadn't taken it well.

"You didn't actually need a doppelgänger to break mother's curse."

"Excuse me?" Klaus' voice went deadly quiet. His eyes flashed gold. "You were the one to examine mother's spell and offer up a solution. You said I needed the blood of Tatia."

"The blood _of_ Tatia," glee warmed him as he unveiled his greatest deception, "not blood _from_ Tatia."

Klaus' face fell, mind rushing back to a slaughtered household.

"You…"

"Had a pregnant Petrova bride, and a brother so desperate he might have tried anything," Elijah interjected, understanding his little brother's actions in the matter.

"Tatia's blood would have been better because you wouldn't have needed Petrova blood to make hybrids," Elena hummed, "but any Petrova would have removed her binding spell."

"Why the bloody hell didn't you say something when Katerina ran off?"

"Aside from the fact that we only learned of her existence two years after the fact?" Kol raised an eyebrow.

"We were in Asia, it's not like we could have stopped you," Elena rolled her eyes.

"Why use a glamour at all, love?" Rebekah hung an arm across the back of the couch as she turned to face them.

"I needed something to bring you all to me," she shrugged, "and everyone believed it had to be a doppelgänger."

"You planned to lure us here?" Rebekah's breath caught. "Why? You had to know what Nik would do."

"Of course I knew, but none of you were meant to get here for another month or longer." She thought of her plan, so well prepared, and then the bitch who ruined everything. "I was supposed to know everything by the time word reached you. I would have remembered and had everything in place for the ritual, and I would have had time to track down Mikael."

"You planned to kill me." Klaus eyes widened, filling with hurt but shockingly no betrayal.

"Don't be so melodramatic," her eyes focused on him, "I planned for you to kill me. I didn't plan on staying dead. I needed Mikael because he hid a spell a thousand years ago from everyone, including Esther; turns out she still wanted to use it on me. The doppelgänger facade was supposed to melt away after the ritual."

"If you planned on dying why are you angry with me?" His tone reminded her of the lost man hours after a part of him was locked away.

"I'm angry because you got here to soon. I'm angry because the vampire in the ritual was supposed to be Katherine. I'm angry because you killed my aunt. I'm angry because my uncle died too. And I'm angry because for the last few months I thought I was going crazy."

Her eyes widened at the end of her tirade. The breath stilled in her lungs as realization rose and her fury shifted.

"Actually, in hindsight, I think I might be more upset with Katherine," she sucked a deep breath and squared her shoulders, "but I'm still mad at you too. You killed Jenna and John and turned Tyler, who you sent to bite Caroline on her birthday."

"I did what I had to in order to break my curse; a curse that by all accounts you were ready to help me with." Klaus swallowed. "Why so angry about them?"

"They were my family," she licked her lips and shook her head. "I lived before, and that life is still apart of me, but it doesn't change the fact that this life happened. I've lived a life here, and these people are still my friends and family. My circle's just gotten a little bigger, is all."

She lowered her eyes to where Kol still held her hand, watching as his thumb smoothed over her knuckles.

"I don't want to lose anyone else."

"And is this the family reunion you were imagining all those years on the other side sister?" Elijah broke the silence following her admission.

"No," she smiled slowly, speaking around the lump in her chest.

* * *

In the heart of town, deep within the earth, magic swelled, seeking cohesion with the multitude of energy so recently released. Distance nullified the magnetic effect.

Above ground a woman strolled the length of Main Street arm in arm with a man, unaware of the number of times they circled the clock tower.

To the denizens of Mystic Falls the young couple remained unknown and unknowable. Humans heard rumours of the glamorous Mikaelson clan, only someone recently awoken from a coma would have missed the news. Small towns loved gossip. Teenage girls whispered about the duo, theorizing that the tall man not much older than them had to be a Mikaelson; they wished fervently for the girl on his arm to be the sister they'd heard about, blissfully ignoring the fact that brothers were not supposed to look at sisters like that.

She had to be the sister. No other families had moved to town.

After the final bell released the high school she became the instant subject of gossip. She walked into the school with her head held high, spoke to Caroline Forbes and Bonnie Bennett and the new girl, and attended classes. In each class she took the recently vacated seat belonging to one of their own, blending into the sea of students without once being singled out by a teacher.

"Do you think she'll go out for cheerleading?" Sarah Matheson leaned a little closer, bumping shoulders with Adrianne Jessup.

"Why else would she walk right up to Caroline Forbes?" Adrianne sipped her peanut butter milkshake. "She's got some confidence," she carried on in a whisper, "approaching the captain of the cheerleading squad on day one."

"They do have an open spot now that Elena's gone."

"Didn't she quit last year?" Adrianne frowned.

"Yeah, but everyone knows Caroline was holding the spot for her; waiting for Elena to come to her senses."

"Only now she's gone and run off with Stefan's brother," she breathed, giggling around her straw.

"Exactly," Sarah grinned, holding out her arms, "open spot." She zipped her lips together as they approached the Mikaelson duo again on their fourth pass of the square.

"How was school?" He covered her fingers with his palm, ignoring entirely the girls ogling them, or rather him.

"Good," she tilted her head. A coy smirk played at the edge of her mouth. "Except for the fact that I'm a weak behind because _someone_ wouldn't let me out of bed."

Adrianne glanced at Sarah and then back to the pair as they paused beneath the clock tower. The break in action made complete sense to them since by her own admission the girl had been sick in bed for a week.

"I hope you're not insinuating that you were bored, darling," he smirked, spinning in front of her to lay both hands low on her hips; effectively chipping away at the delusions of their unknown audience.

Her eyes fell to his chest as she took a small step in and fisted his jacket. "It was far more enjoyable then the time I _couldn't_ get out of bed."

"I worked very hard to keep you entertained," he teased.

"You don't have to tell me," her smirk melted into a happy grin, "by the time you let me get up I could hardly walk."

"I shall endeavour to stop you from walking altogether in the future," he winked, "in order to dissuade you from leaving our bed in the mornings."

Adrianne coughed, choking on a mouthful of peanut butter blast. Brown slush spewed from her mouth, hitting Sarah in the face until a large hand came down twice on her back.

"Alright, love?"

She looked up into ridiculously gorgeous eyes and noted that being that attractive and unavailable should have been illegal.

"Fine," she coughed, gesturing to her chest, "went down the wrong pipe."

He left her when he seemed sure she was out of danger, returning to his girlfriend.

"What was that about?" Elena cocked an eyebrow.

"Your school mates were under the impression that you were Rebekah," he smirked. "I wanted to see their faces when they realized otherwise."

"They were listening in on that conversation and only figured it out at the end?" She shook her head, calling into question their observational skills. "We've been walking arm in arm for…" she trailed off as she checked her watch, finally realizing how long they'd been strolling. An in exorbitant amount of time considering all of the things they could have been doing instead… in their bed.

"It has been a while, hasn't it?" He agreed. "They must be blind. Shall we return home where I'll cook you dinner?"

"I have been looking forward to a home cooked meal…" she smiled.

Neither of them moved.

Elena's eyes flickered to the clock tower, drawn to the building by a sense of familiarity she couldn't quite place but knew to be magic. She wracked her mind, searching for any spells they might have cast their a thousand years before because Kol could clearly feel it too.

"There's something here."

"What?" He reached for her hand, threading their fingers together. "It feels familiar and foreign. Something I should know, but don't."

"It doesn't feel foreign to me," she shook her head. "It feels like it's part of me… mine."

Kol squeezed her hand, smiling encouragingly.

"Then lets follow the feeling."

Follow the feeling they did. It lead them through the door at the base of the clock and deeper still into the building until they came upon a set of spiral stairs she never knew existed.

Kol used his free hand, flipped the switch for the overhead lights and resorted to the flashlight on his phone when they flickered and died.

Her grip tightened.

He led the way, moving round and round. A chill seeped into her skin the farther they went, indicating the moment they moved underground.

Their shoes touched concrete at the bottom of the steps.

They paused to let the feeling redirect, breathing in decades of dust. A basement surrounded them, not nearly as large as it should have been for the size of the building.

The closest comparison Elena could draw was to a string. An invisible string tied around her heart. The tugs grew stronger the further they ventured.

"Over there," she whispered, following the beam of light Kol had already directed; it shone on the right wall.

Elena laid her palms on the wall and frowned. Magic thrummed up her arms.

"There's something behind it."

She nodded a silent agreement. The wall felt more figment than construct. A single step forward confirmed it. She slid through the wall at first under resistance, but then like a knife through butter, coming out in total darkness.

"Elena?"

"I'm here." She reached blindly into her bag, sifting through notebooks and textbooks in search of her cell phone.

"Where exactly is here, darling?"

"Here is here," she smirked. "I've only gone a single step." Her fingers brushed over pencils and a calculator.

"Well, when I tried to take a single step I hit solid wall."

"Try where I was standing." She grinned, having located her cell phone. The screen lit up at her command, but she dropped it on the floor when Kol walked into her back.

The wind knocked out of her lungs.

Two phones hit the floor, giving her a brief glimpse of wood before cracking.

"For someone who just hit concrete that was a pretty confident step," she held the arms around her waist, rubbing her back against his front as she lowered herself to the floor for the phones.

"Your suggestion implied you had moved out of the way."

"I thought I would have time." She turned his ruined iPhone around, catching him in the beam of the still functioning flashlight. "Figured you'd take a few seconds to find it, affording me a minute to gain some light so I didn't do something like trip and impale myself on something sharp."

"I'd rather keep you away from anything remotely sharp," he chuckled.

"You sure about that?" Elena's gaze flickered to his mouth.

"I can't have you impaled, darling," he smirked.

"And here I thought you enjoyed impaling me." She wiggled her eyebrows.

"That's not the term I'd use…"

"It fits the definition." A giggle burst out, prompting him to join in laughing.

Her arm lowered, revealing a door that hadn't been there a moment ago. At least not from the opposite side.

"I think we might have broken somebody's spell work," she sighed.

"I think I saw a few candles." He murmured an incantation, flooding the space in flickering light.

Elena took a small step back, but held his arms rather than turn, nervous suddenly of what lay behind. His slack expression did nothing to lessen her tension.

After a beat she did spin around because something in that room belonged to them, and that something sat in the smaller box.

She took first one step and then another, closing the distance with Kol at her side. They ignored the shelves and tables that held the candles, walked around the larger box and placed their hands on the lid of the small one.

Intricate spells sealed it, but each melted away beneath their joint magic. The energy extended from within and without, meeting in the middle.

The lid dissolved.

Her hands flew to her mouth, stifling a small shriek.

Kol froze, wanting to reach inside and feeling he should take a step back because what he was seeing couldn't possibly be real.

Could it?

"Elena?" He breathed, coaxing his muscles into action. The tip of his finger glided over a tiny cheek, smooth as down.

The sight of his hand making contact snapped Elena out of her shock. She reached inside and carefully brought the infant out, cradling the babe against her breast.

An emptiness had resided inside of her for a long time, but holding the little girl filled it.

She laid perfectly still. The only sign of life being the steady rise and fall of her frail chest.

Kol's hand cradled the back of her head, unsure, and she remembered the last time he truly held an infant at the tender age of seven. Henrik squirmed and wailed until Esther reclaimed him.

Elena had held her all of a minute, perhaps two, but it was two more than he had ever had.

"Do you want to hold her?" She whispered. A tear dripped off the edge of her nose, staining the off-white blanket.

"I…" his voice sounded choked. "What if I break her?"

"You won't," she sniffled. Her hands moved, shifting their child into his arms.

She appeared so tiny in his hold: delicate. But she would grow to be a powerful witch; one that could have given her grandmother a run for her money.

"She's so small." Hands that had dealt out death and destruction curled protectively around her body. "How long until Freya awakens?"

Elena reached up, gently swiping her thumbs under his eyes. She kissed his cheek and bent to lay another on the baby's head.

"I don't Freya to wake her up."

"But I thought…"

"Freya needed _us,"_ she turned reluctantly, scrubbing her hands over the glass she realized was the top of his sister's coffin, "but we're both here, and she showed me the spell. We can wake her now."

"Take her home today," he breathed.

She grinned, bouncing on her feet.

"You know we're completely unprepared for this," he murmured, laughter in his tone.

"So are most of the people in the world."

She lifted candles, still burning, and made a small circle on the table. She crouched near the door for a shard of glass from his phone and moved back, waving to the centre of the circle.

He laid her down gently as if she were the porcelain doll she resembled.

Elena stabbed the tip of her finger and offered up the makeshift blade to him.

"Two drops on each candle, and one on her forehead."

He nodded.

Elena went clockwise as he moved counterclockwise, meeting and overlapping in the middle. Their blood sizzled on contact with the flames. She chanted the words that had been on her mind for a week, watching as the flames rose three inches and curved, arching inward. The protective instinct screamed at her to stop before her child could be burned but she carried on, letting a single drop of blood rest on her forehead. As she continued to chant the flames created a cage of fire, burning bright and violent before retreating. The blood on her brow sank down, absorbing into her skin as the candles extinguished completely.

A moment passed in complete silence; then two. And just when Elena thought she might lose her mind the blanket shifted.

A piercing cry drowned out the whisper of cloth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What did you think?
> 
> Can anyone guess the baby's name? I've had it picked out for forever and it'll be revealed next chapter along with a small dose of Viking history.


	10. Chapter 10

"Is contacting your ex-boyfriend truly necessary?" Kol cradled their daughter in the crook of his arm, gently running a finger down her cheeks.

She stared up, fascinated by the angles of his face.

"Do you have another method for transporting a coffin?" Elena's arm stretched above her head, keeping the phone in the small window of cellular service as she awaited a response.

The return should have been forthcoming since he wasn't at work, but so far she had waited ten minutes. "We would draw some strange looks carrying it."

"Elena?" A muffled voice traveled down the stairs "Are you here?"

"In the basement," she called, pocketing her cell.

"We do not require Matt's assistance, love. I say we leave her where she is." His eyes glittered.

"Leave Freya sealed in a basement?"

"Yes."

"The woman who kept our daughter safe for a thousand years?"

"She lied to me."

"By omission," she nudged his arm. "She kept her safe and brought me back, and you want to leave her here and make her think she failed us?"

"Not forever, my darling," he sighed, rolling his eyes. "We would obviously come and retrieve her after she awakens. Think of it as a small joke: retribution for her lie by omission."

"That's a rather cruel joke," Elena rolled her eyes.

"She'll learn fast: the way of this family."

Elena looked at him a moment. Then she shook her head.

"We're not leaving our babies godmother in a basement."

"Isn't the father usually involved in that decision?" he smirked, conceding defeat.

"You have someone else in mind? I say Freya has more than earned the title."

A clearing throat drew their attention to Matt. He stood at the bottom of the stairs, looking between them.

"You have a baby now?"

"And a sister," Kol nodded.

"Can you help Kol get the coffin in your truck and drive her to the mansion?" She held out her arms.

"I'm taking her?"

"You've got more strength."

"Mm hmm," he arched an eyebrow. "If you wanted the baby all you have to do is say so."

"I want our baby," she grinned, accepting the infant and a quick kiss.

"Could we go back to the baby for a second?" Matt shifted on his heels, rocking back and then forward to peer closely at the tiny face. Her blue eyes blinked at him when he stood at Elena's elbow and looked down, clouding over with confusion. "Whose child is this?"

She looked at Kol through her lashes, eyebrows raised in silent question. He nodded once, leaving the decision in her hands.

"She's ours," her eyes shifted to Matt. A wicked idea took root in her mind. She gave into the thought, blaming her sense of humour on six centuries of marriage to Kol Mikaelson. "You are currently the only person to know that fact, and I'd appreciate it if you didn't mention her existence to anyone at the mansion when you drop Freya off."

Matt frowned. "They don't know?"

"Nope," she popped the 'p'. After sealing Esther away she and Kol refrained from revealing every detail to their family because they both feared on some level that they'd never get her back; Katerina had screwed up so much, so who was to say something had gone wrong on Freya's end. Maybe Dahlia caught up, killed Freya and stole their child again.

"Why don't they know?"

"We were going to tell them," Elena watched as Kol moved into the other room. Matt followed closely behind, lifting one end of the coffin. She could tell Kol supported most of the weight by the way his muscles moved under his shirt.

Matt walked backwards, coming to a stop to consider the stairs.

"I guess I got a little scared," she murmured.

"We both did," Kol met her eyes. "Why is it you don't want them to know now, my love?"

"You can't exactly hide her," Matt added, taking the first step. With his foot planted on the stairs he seemed to realize he was only there for steering and balance.

"I don't plan to, but I worship chaos," she smirked. "And it's gonna be a lot more chaotic when we walk through the front door with our baby girl if you don't give them advance warning."

"You're not going back?" He caught her eyes over Kol's shoulder before rounding the first spiral. "And how is she yours?"

"Do we need to have the sex talk, Matt?" She snickered, laughter traveling up the stairs.

"I understand the logistics, Elena," the tips of his ears turned red, "just not _these_ ones. For one thing, somebody would have noticed if you were pregnant, and for another…" she caught a glimpse of him nodding to Kol before he vanished around another corner. "… vampire."

Kol took pity on him, but mirth tinged his voice. "We conceived shortly before our marriage when we were both human; not that our parents were aware of the fact."

"I think your mother knew, and Ayana," Elena mused. "Those two had a way of sensing pregnancy. My father had to have known."

"Elena, love, you're overlooking an obvious fact," Kol levelled off the coffin as they hit the ground floor, "had your father known he would have seen my strung up."

"Don't be ridiculous my father loved you." She cooed, looking down into her arms: "your grandpa liked daddy."

"More than her other grandfather did," he muttered.

"Mikael did stop Esther from turning me, so at least he had some level of attachment to her." Elena murmured. Mikael had never been the overly tender father; if he showed a lick of affection everyone knew he was deep in his cups.

"And no Matt," she walked ahead to open the back door, holding it with her hip as she used her free hand to shield her daughter's face from the sunlight she hadn't felt in a millennia. "We're not going back yet."

His pickup truck had been backed into the alley between buildings. The back opened with a word from Kol as they maneuvered Freya into the truck bed.

"She was born a thousand years ago, and early after a particularly stressful pregnancy," his eyes focused on the coffin, "we are going to take her directly to the hospital where I shall compel the finest doctors to ensure her health."

"One doctor will do, babe," Elena sighed, sensing the place his mind retreated to. "She seems to be fine. And I seem to recall telling you a thousand years ago that what happened was not your fault."

Matt lifted the tailgate, and wisely refrained from asking what he wanted to.

"How exactly am I supposed to explain the long lost sister without the two of you?" He asked instead, fishing his keys out of his pocket.

"Just get Finn, and tell him it's Freya," Elena tugged the scarf off her neck, using it as a makeshift blanket. "He was old enough to remember her."

"You sure about that?"

"Freya clearly remembered being taken, and Finn was only a year younger. He knows she didn't die of plague."

* * *

Elena hated the hospital. She despised the pale walls and florescent lights. She loathed the constant woosh of automatic doors. She retched at the smell of antibacterial soaps and disinfectants meant to conceal the sickness around every corner.

Even in one of the private suites of the paediatric ward she couldn't escape. Through the blinds, across from the nurses station, a child no more than four laid in bed. Dozens of wires protruded from the small lump on the bed, shifting with each listless touch to a small teddy bear.

The blinds snapped shut.

She swallowed the lump in her throat, shifting her attention to Kol as he moved away from the window.

"I'm okay," her fingers trembled. Wilhelmina Maxwell, better known to her friends and family as Mina, born with a rare heart condition. She remembered her father mentioning the little girl years ago, a few weeks before the car went off the bridge. He had been optimistic about the then baby's speedy recovery if only he could be put on her case.

In retrospect, Greyson Gilbert was probably the root of her optimism in early life.

Kol took a seat beside her in the second chair, reached out and held her shaking hand.

"Do you know the girl?" He asked softly, eyes flickering toward the door and steady beep he could still hear.

"Mina," she nodded once. "She… she's dying."

Greyson Gilbert was also responsible for the mess of medical information in her head. Her mind kept flashing to the case files, neatly organized in his office: childhood diseases, infant deaths, and complications of preterm delivery.

"My, uh, my dad was supposed to take over her case. He said she'd be better in no time, but then he died" she sniffled. A hysterical laugh bubbled up in her throat, escaping as a squeak. "I guess he… he never told anyone about his treatment plan because Maggie's just gotten steadily worse. Without a transplant she's got a couple months?"

"Transplant?" Kol's brows lowered.

Sadness tinged her fond smile as she remembered how long he had so recently spent 'sleeping'.

"Heart transplant," she nodded once. "They take the heart out of someone recently deceased, keeping them alive long enough to remove the organs, and give it to someone who needs it. There are a lot of things that can be transplanted."

"There are people walking around with the internal organs of other people?" He tilted his head.

"Transplants save a lot of lives," she chewed her bottom lip. Her free hand remained in the incubator, carefully rubbing the knuckles of her baby girl's fist. Several monitors beeped behind her, keeping track of heart rate and a bunch of other stuff she couldn't remember the technical name for.

"I can't imagine playing host to another would be easy."

"People who have transplants have to take anti-rejection medication," she nodded. The process wasn't foolproof, but taking medication everyday was a hell of a lot better than dying at the tender age of four when a child should have been running, jumping and climbing trees.

"Surely a little blood would be simpler," he fidgeted with her bracelet, "especially for children. I can't imagine people always remember to take their 'medication'."

Elena laughed softly, eyes drifting from the incubator to him.

"It would be easier, but unfortunately the vast majority of the world doesn't know about the existence of the supernatural. They put their faith in medical professionals who know nothing about vampires or their blo…"

"Darling?"

_"It's a new treatment I'm developing. Highly experimental, but with a 100% success rate."_

"Are you alright, love?"

_Stefan broke their steamy make out session. As the fog cleared from her eyes she found him staring at the closet wall behind; vaguely she heard their conversation before he removed panels and opened the secret door behind on a room full of weapons._

"Oh my God," she breathed.

"Elena?" Kol straightened up. He kept one ear on the mesh of sounds outside their room, but the rest of his focus rested on her.

"He knew…" her heart began to race. "My dad was on the council. He knew about vampires, and he had a 'highly experimental' treatment plan…"

Her mouth feel open.

"He was gonna give that little girl vampire blood."

Before Kol could respond they were rejoined by the doctor.

Dr. Eliza Reyes took a small step back under the intense stares of the young parents, sensing any bad news would be met tears and hostility.

"Your daughter's test results are back in…" she began, pausing when they shared a look loaded with fear. "She has RDS."

"RDS?" Elena frowned, searching her memory for the term. "I'm sorry; I don't know what that is."

Beside her Kol went deathly pale, retreating to that place he had gone in the year after she gave birth. She needed answers fast to keep him from spiralling.

"Neonatal respiratory disease syndrome," she explained, stepping towards the incubator.

Elena watched the shallow breaths lift and lower her daughter's chest.

"Her case is relatively mild, a few days on oxygen and she should be fine, but there are some risks."

"What kind of risks?" Kol rose.

"The treatments for RDS can lead to BPD." Dr. Reyes explained gently. "Most infants recover on their own from BPD, but it can lead to lung problems later in life. From what you told me, I was expecting a lot worse."

"How do you mean?" Elena shoved her hair behind her ear.

"Preterm babies of the time you told me have many more health problems. Are you sure you weren't farther along in your pregnancy, Mrs. Mikaelson?"

Elena blinked back tears. Dozens of images flashed through her head. She had always thought they conceived the day Henrik caught them in the stables, but the harder she thought about it she wasn't so sure. It would the height of kismet if they made their baby during that afternoon on top of the falls when they talked about children as summer drew to a close.

It's not like they'd been inactive.

The falls would lower her preterm status from months to weeks.

"I… it's possible."

"Is there any treatment that doesn't threaten risks for later in life?" Kol slipped his hand into the incubator, gently holding the small fist.

"A doctor here had an experimental treatment a few years ago that did wonders with children, but unfortunately we don't have access to his notes anymore."

"Who is this doctor? I should like his treatment instead."

"I'm afraid that's not possible, Mr. Mikaelson," she shook her head slowly, "Greyson Gilbert took his secrets to the grave."

His head snapped up so suddenly it threatened to give her whiplash, but she watched as the couple exchanged a look, conversing entirely with their eyes. She gave an imperceptible nod and he turned his hypnotic gaze on her.

His pupils dilated, holding her in place.

"I believe you're about to insist of a second round of testing. You're uncertain of your results. False positives happen all the time."

"All the time," she murmured, nodding her agreement in a daze. "I'm gonna order a second round of tests."

"Best run along and get that done, doctor," Kol grinned.

They watched her leave.

Elena unlatched the sides of the incubator and reached in, pulling the baby out. She cradled her to her chest as she stirred and grunted, bleary eyes popping open.

Kol stood with his back to the door, concealing his wife and child from view. He pierced his thumb with a canine and took advantage of her big yawn to let three drops fall into her open mouth.

She grimaced, scrunching up her nose, but her shallow breathing evened out.

He glanced over his shoulder, catching a glimpse of people walking across the hall.

"I'll be back in a moment, my love," he kissed her cheek, vanishing in an instant.

He stopped in a darkened room and watched the little girl in the hospital bed a moment before moving towards the small sink. She opened her eyes as he filled a plastic cup with water.

"Who are you?"

Her rasp tugged at his heart strings as he bit his thumb again and let more blood fall, blending with the water.

"I'm your new doctor, sweetheart," he smiled, reaching down to touch her arm; he felt the bones under her skin.

"You're too young to be a doctor," she whispered.

"I'm a lot older than I look, Mina," he winked, moving his hand to the back of her head. He caught her green eyes and compelled her. "Drink now, and when I leave you'll forget I was ever here."

He raised an eyebrow when he returned, examining Elena's small smile.

"What?"

"You are such a softie." She shook her head slowly, biting her bottom lip.

"How dare you, madam?" He gasped, holding a hand over his heart. "I am a psychotic maniac."

 _Except when it comes to dying children,_ Elena thought.

She crossed the empty space and stretched up on her toes, laying a kiss to the corner of his mouth.

"I love you."

* * *

Gravel crunched under tires. The sound indicated to all of them that the vehicle was heavier than Kol's car.

A look out the window confirmed it, revealing a beat up old truck.

"Have you finally gotten the quarterback to ask you on a date?" Klaus watched Matt hop out of the truck. "Shall I inquire as to his intentions and discuss a dowry?"

"Shut it, Nik!" Rebekah hurled the throw pillow she had been using as an armrest.

"You're right," he smirked, catching the cushion. "He's probably not interested. Clearly he's dropping something off for Elena."

"Mr. Donovan is delivering a coffin?" Elijah peered out the window. His timing meant he was the first to see Matt lower the tailgate and the first to realize what was inside.

He flashed outside, taking a small amount of pleasure in making the human jump.

"Jeez," Matt's hands hit the truck bed, "give a guy some warning."

"My apologies," he lifted his chin. "I'm afraid my curiosity was peaked."

He heard Klaus and Rebekah as they came through the mansion door, bickering like children the whole way.

"Why are you driving a coffin around town?" He lifted a brow, eyes drawn to the glass lid: opaque in the daylight. "Who is this woman?"

"Uh…" Matt rubbed the back of his neck. "Is um… is Finn here by any chance?"

"You are here for Finn?" Klaus frowned.

"Not really," Matt shrugged. "It's just that Elena said he's the only one who would believe me."

"What, exactly, am I meant to believe?"

Finn appeared beside Rebekah, drawn from the depths of the mansion by the sound of his name. The redheaded vampire Matt had seen around town the last few days was with him.

"That, uh," he lowered his hand, waving towards the coffin. "That this is your sister."

"Excuse me?"

Amusement flickered in Klaus' eyes. "Rebekah is right here, mate."

"I know that," he snapped, "this is Freya."

* * *

Clean bill of health kept repeating in Elena's head as she meticulously filled out form after form.

She had a clean bill of health.

Her eyes strayed to the baby, snuggled against her breast as she worked.

"You are perfectly healthy, baby girl," she cooed, unable to hide her grin.

Kol too had been grinning ear to ear when he left her in the hospital room armed with a list. Divide and conquer was the mantra of the afternoon, and he was a lot more willing to leave their healthy daughter in Elena's hands to gather everything they would need to get them through the twenty-four hours before Rebekah went baby crazy and helped them purchase the bigger items.

"When daddy gets back with the carseat we're gonna take you home. You've got so many uncles, and another auntie who is gonna adore you." She stared down at the final boxes on the form, carefully printing out the first and last name.

"Your daddy picked out your name a thousand years ago," she set down her pen, leaning back to rock in the chair a moment. "Back when you were still growing because he swore that any daughter of ours would be as blessed by the gods. He said you'd be as divinely beautiful as me."

She smiled, shoulders gently shaking. "He's a sweet talker, your dad is. A thousand years ago you were born Astrid Kolsdöttir, but this is the twenty-first century. We don't name babies like that anymore, so now you're Astrid Mikaelson."

Astrid cooed.

"You like that, huh?" Elena turned her attention back to the paper and the glaringly empty box.

"I've got a brother now, I didn't before; he's gonna flip but he'll love you so much and he'll definitely sneak you extra cookies at Christmas. Your uncle Elijah can be a bit uptight sometimes, but you'll make him really smile. And uncle Nik likes to act gruff, like he doesn't care enough, but when we were waiting for you to arrive he made you the most beautiful cradle." She felt a fond smile on her lips as she thought on the cradle Kol built and his brother carved, decorating it with images of the gods.

"Uncle Finn's had it hard lately, but he's getting better. He found Sage again, or rather she found him. I bet you'll grow up calling her auntie too." She reached for the pen, struck with inspiration. "Without him your dad and I might not have been together as long as we were, and I might have never met Freya again. He was so reluctant to turn me; he didn't trust the process back then."

She filled in the middle name carefully, forming each individual letter before she put down the pen.

"Daddy got to pick your first name, so I say that gives me rights to your middle name." She stood up as a figure darkened the door, smiling at her husband as he entered.

Her smile turned bemused when Caroline and Bonnie followed him inside.

"What are you two doing here?"

"We caught Kol fighting to install one of those baby seat bases in his car," Caroline tilted her head.

"So…" Bonnie raised an eyebrow. "Obviously we helped, and then tagged along because apparently you've got a baby now."

"We always had her," Elena stood up, nodding as she did. "We just didn't know if we'd get her back."

"Got it," Caroline nodded, accepting the explanation and understanding why they were kept in the dark. "Are you going to introduce us? I can't be an honorary auntie without knowing her name."

"Honorary aunts?" Kol chuckled. "Freya as godmother… I'll just say it now: Rebekah will not be pleased with sharing her title."

"She'll get over it," Elena laughed. "Besides, Bex likes them."

"We all get along great now that we're not trying to kill each other," Bonnie grinned. "So…?"

"This is Astrid," Elena shifted the blanket from around her face so they could see, and giggled when her friends moved in close.

"Astrid Kolfinnia Mikaelson."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so Kolfinnia is an actual name of Scandinavian origin meaning white, but as Elena points out later to her husband it's less about the meaning and more about the composition that honours both her husband and former sire.


	11. Chapter 11

She heard the distant voices from the car's front seat, words indecipherable to her human ears.

"They're either loudly discussing the latest family reunion, or hurtling insults at each other." Elena unbuckled and twisted round, lifting upwards to shift half of her body into the back.

"Still out cold?" He frowned. "Is it normal to sleep so much?"

"I think so…" She gazed at Astrid nestled snugly in the carrier. Her arm, clothed in a hospital issued onesie peeked out as she stretched. "We'll have to look it up, but babies do sleep most of the day for the first bit."

"I'll purchase some books tomorrow," he nodded, turning off the cars ignition. "There's no need for us to learn everything in the moment as we would have back then."

She released a quiet laugh.

"We wouldn't be learning everything on the go."

"When's the last time you were around a baby for any length of time?" He arched an eyebrow.

"Tatia's daughter," she returned to the front seat. "And for you it was Henrik… I suppose it has been a little while."

"Precisely, my love, and I wish to be as prepared as I can possibly be."

"So you're gonna study baby books like a nerd?" She giggled, already seeing him flipping through every book he could get on the subject. "You're such a philomath."

He leaned caught her hand, raised it to his lips and left the lightest kiss on her wrist sparking a fire in her veins.

"You've known that since day one. And, as I recall," he brushed his mouth across her palm and the tip of her index finger, "you were always just as eager to learn as I was."

She watched him through lowered lashes, voice falling to a soft murmur. "I never said I wouldn't be right there beside you for every book."

"Excellent," his eyes glittered. "Now, darling, why don't you wrangle the carrier from the back seat while I go inside and tell them all to shut it?"

When she nodded he stepped from the vehicle and strode towards the house.

The door made no sound as he opened it, but his family perceived his presence all the same, bringing the argument to a screeching halt.

They stared at him and he stared back, blinking innocently.

"Is our sister to be the focal point of the entry, then?" Kol waved a hand to the black and white tile, partially obscured under dark wood.

A mass of noise assaulted his ears. Each word formed a question about Freya that he had neither the time nor inclination to answer, especially while they were all shouting.

Instead he loudly shushed them all, brows lowered in a stern expression that increased his resemblance to Elijah. His sudden shift in demeanour stunned them into a sputtering silence again.

"If you all keep shouting like that you'll wake the baby."

He could tell they hadn't quite grasped the weight of his words. With the noted exception of Finn, whose mind worked through thousand year old memories and a niggling suspicion that began the moment he laid eyes on his beloved older sister.

"I can see we're all quiet now," Elena came up behind him, quickly noting the lack of broken glass. She placed the carrier on the step. "I assume Freya caused quite the stir."

Klaus was the first to open his mouth.

"Shh!" Elena could tell by the tension in his body that any words would reach a decimal too harsh for little ears. "She's sleeping."

She fought to tamper her grin as the big bad hybrid's ears turned pink and his eyes bulged; he looked fit to burst with questions.

Elijah managed a more level tone.

"Would one, or both of you, care to explain the events of the afternoon?"

"Of course," Kol nodded slowly, casting a sly smirk towards Elena.

"It's all really simple," she agreed, clasping her hands behind her back and rocking on her heels. "And it boils down to this: your mother has a sister who fancies herself Rumpelstiltskin."

"Who is Rumpelstiltskin?" Finn frowned, turning his questioning gaze toward Sage.

"A firstborn stealing imp," her eyes flickered from the coffin to the baby.

"Ah, yes," he nodded, "that's a rather accurate description for Dahlia."

"Are we meant to believe that we've an aunt who abducted not only our sister, but our… our niece?" Klaus gestured toward the stairs.

"That's exactly what you're supposed to believe because it's exactly what happened," Elena lifted her chin, challenging him to interrupt her with her eyes. "We were in Norway when I gave birth, and by sheer misfortune the witch to assist in my delivery was Dahlia. The correct dose of herbs brought on a fever and when I woke I had only the haziest memories when she told me my child died."

"She started your illness?" Horror entered Rebekah's eyes.

"In hindsight, Bekah, I'm pretty sure I had severe postpartum depression." Elena chewed the inside of her cheek. "Though Dahlia's actions certainly progressed it."

"Anyway…" she blew out a breath. "Freya was there and tried to bring her home; it just took her a thousand years. A couple of curses delayed her."

"So…" Rebekah shifted on her feet. Her teeth sank into her bottom lip. "This is our niece?"

"Mmhmm," she nodded with a smile.

"The introduction is a millennium overdue," Kol's hand cupped Elena's elbow, "but better late than never." He bent, taking away the blanket she had used as a sunshield; her nose scrunched in protest. "Everyone, this is Astrid."

Rebekah flashed in front of them before he finished speaking and knelt, deftly working the buckles in seconds and making her brother feel slightly idiotic to have taken so long figuring out how to secure the buckles and straps.

"We just got Astrid back, Bekah." He watched his sister lift his daughter and coo as the infant opened her bleary eyes then turned to Elena.

"Face facts, Kol," Elena wrapped an arm around his back, smirked and leaned into his side, "we've lost her again."

* * *

Over the course of the following week they learned the bits and pieces of her personality. The sweet child adored her parents. She tolerated the extended family's fussing, extended snuggle sessions with auntie Bex and constant attention, but when she wanted mom and dad she wanted mom and dad.

She loved the fluffy fox plush that Rebekah managed to locate, and overnight to the mansion with everything Astrid could ever want and way more than she needed.

Her favourite activity remained sleep, specifically being lulled to sleep in her parents arms while they whispered mystical tales in the lyrical tongue of their youth.

She loved sleep, but she stayed awake a little longer each day.

She also screamed bloody murder if neither parent was there the moment she woke up.

They worried about self-soothing, but the thought that somehow she had developed a fear of abandonment meant neither were ever far from the nursery.

Elena even left school, formally. She tried going, but halfway to the car she had an epiphany that she kicked herself for not having sooner. One way or another eternity would stretch before her again; she had all of time to learn.

Astrid would only have one childhood.

That was how she came to be sprawled on her stomach next to Kol while their daughter wiggled on her belly and buried her face in fake fox fur.

That was also how Klaus found them.

He stepped into their bedroom with a long box in hand.

"What do you want, Nik?" Kol pulled Astrid into his arms and tickled her cheek, encouraging a smile.

"I've brought you a gift," he smirked.

"Not something for Astrid, I hope," Elena rolled her eyes. "Rebekah purchased so many things that she'll never likely get a chance to use."

"Actually, Elena, this is for you."

"For me?" She teased, accepting the box. "Whatever could it be?"

A few months ago her reaction to a seemingly severed hand would have been disgust, but when she saw the claw holding a black candle she squealed, jumped up and shocked him with a hug.

Kol watched her leave the room with a raised brow. "What was that?"

"A hand of glory."

Down in the basement she poured a mixture of volcanic ash, salt. and shaved iron in a sparkling circle on the dark floor; the prison glittered silver in the light from fancy sconces high on the wall.

Then she mounted the mummified hand atop a gilded table, cupped the candle wick, closed her eyes and opened the window.

Feet hit the floor as her palm warmed.

She took a deep breath, filling her lungs with the frozen air on the Other Side. It tickled her senses, summoning vague memories of her time there - moments lost to the void, completely suppressed with the exception of her own time in a similar cage.

"Hello, Mikael," she exhaled and met his narrow gaze.

"What trickery is this?" He stepped forward, prevented from reaching her by the barrier. "Where are we?"

"Mystic Falls," she rocked back on her heels and crossed her arms.

His narrow eyes widened.

"You're alive?" Disbelief coloured his tone. "How?"

"Freya." A simple question deserved a simple answer. "Yeah, your little girl is alive too. She brought me back as a doppelganger to lure Klaus."

"Because where the Beast goes my children are certain to follow." He spoke with a calm assurance and his own patented brand of disgust.

Her blood boiled - thoughts flying backwards to who he had been in the beginning.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" She exploded, not even trying to stop. All she could think of was how he had once been the softest of the brothers, almost painfully in touch with his humanity. Mikael's brows rose.

"He was good; better than he should have been after the childhood YOU put him through."

She saw an image of five Originals, poking their faces around the door Three Stooges style.

"If he's a beast now it's because you made him one. Did you know the first time you struck him he wasn't yours? Is that why?" She read the answer in his eyes before he shook his head. "Why? All you had to do was love him."

"It was a harsher time, Elena. He needed to learn."

"Bull shit," she snorted. "My father never raised a hand to me and I learned just fine. Do you have any idea what you did, chasing us around the damn world."

Shame clouded his features and lowered his eyes.

"I was never chasing you. And I apologize for any stress that contributed to losing your daughter."

"She's not lost, Mikael. She was stolen just like Freya, but now she's upstairs with Kol, who - despite your example - is an amazing father."

"Have you summoned me merely to yell?" His expression hardened.

"I summoned you so you would tell me where you stashed Esther's immortality spell. I'd prefer to have it before Dahlia shows up to try and take Astrid again."

"Dahlia?"

Elena nodded, wondering if she would have to torture the information out and how she even could.

He surprised her with an answer, but then again maybe at shouldn't have. Mikael never cared that his children were vampires.

"It's in a safety deposit box in Washington; you'll need a pen."

Her eyes darted to the table, scanned the myriad of spell ingredients and came to the sad conclusion that she had neglected a writing instrument. She berated herself silently because she should have known that Mikael would never hide something so important in a place a human could stumble across. His lack of magic would have made any place in Mystic Falls insecure.

"How long were you carrying it around?" She lifted her grimoire Kol had kept safe for centuries, searching beneath the supple leather for a pen or pencil.

"Until I was satisfied it would remain untouched where I left it."

"I'm surprised you refrained from destroying it." Kol stepped into the basement with Astrid in one arm and note taking supplies in the other.

Elena glanced over her shoulder, plucked the offered pen, spread the small slip of paper out and weighed it down with her hand.

"Why would I destroy it?" Mikael frowned, focus drifting to his granddaughter. "That spell was always meant for Elena. Had you stopped running I might have gotten it to her before you could turn her."

"Kol didn't turn me," she inhaled slowly, watching her husband from the corner of her eyes. "Finn did. Was everybody listening to me yell?"

"Rebekah and Finn are out, my love," his fingers touched the small of her back. "I do not know where Elijah is, but for the first time in a thousand years Nik has been rendered speechless."

Astrid cooed from her perch, blue eyes focused on the fox she held in her hands.

"It's been a thousand years… how is she still an infant?" Mikael moved to the edge of his prison.

Her eyes blinked, focusing on her grandfather.

"A sleeping curse." Kol moved his free arm up, protectively curling it around Astrid. "The information, father?"

* * *

One week after releasing Mikael's ghost Elena sat crosslegged on her childhood bed with Astrid on her back at her knees and the stuffed fox in her hands. While Kol was out and Klaus completed renovations she sought asylum in the old house.

"She really loves that thing, doesn't she?" Bonnie abandoned her grimoire to watch Astrid wave her arms and bat at the toy.

"She really does," Elena smiled, laughter in her voice. "I really want her first word to be 'mama', you know… so I can rub everybody's faces in it and be super smug until she says 'dada'."

"And Kol wants it the other way around?" Jeremy tickled Astrid's toes.

"Of course," her eyes flickered to Caroline, sitting upright beside her and attempting to capture Astrid's attention with another toy from the diaper bag. "I'm expecting a full blown competition once she starts making sounds, but with everyone else in the mix I wouldn't be surprised if her first word is rakki."

"Is that even a word?" Caroline tucked her hair behind her ear.

"Not in English," she shrugged, "but in the language I grew up with the first time around it means fox."

"Well, I for one am gonna be pushing for auntie Care." She picked Astrid up, supported her head and held her upright letting her brace her legs. "Because you love auntie Caroline, don't you Astrid?"

She cooed and gurgled in response, giving Caroline a gummy smile.

"Not as much as she loves her mama," Elena swooped over, kissing across Astrid's cheek.

"You want to make this interesting?" Caroline lifted an eyebrow, mischief turning her expression.

"What did you have in mind?" Elena grinned, sensing a wager coming on.

"If I win, and her first word is 'Care' then I get to choose what you wear for a day."

"Why am I getting sudden Halloween flashbacks?" She raised her brows. "You know that Charlie's Angel's costume doesn't fit anymore, right?"

"We were seven at the time, so I figured it wouldn't," she snickered. "I've got something else in mind. And you didn't let me finish… you've got to wear what I pick out and declare your undying love for Damon and to Damon."

"Are you trying to get Damon killed?" Elena rolled her eyes at the mention of the vampire recently returned to town. "Because Kol will do it."

"Maybe," Caroline smirked, "but I'm sure you can pull him off before he does any permanent damage. Do we have a deal?"

"Alright," Elena nodded, tilting her head, "but if I win and she say's 'mama' first then you have to dye your hair blue, teal and purple."

"And what if I win and she says 'dada' first?"

Elena turned enough to see Kol leaning in the doorway.

"You and I already have terms in place," she smirked, matching his expression. "And I'm looking forward to winning."

"You mean you're dreaming of winning," he chuckled, eyes darkening as they roved over her body. "And you can keep dreaming, love, because her first word will be dada."

"You two are betting on your baby's first word?" Jeremy shared a look with Bonnie. Neither batted an eye when Elena took up Caroline, but both girls had always been competitive.

"Friendly competition is healthy in any marriage." Kol folded himself behind Elena, wrapped his arms around her from behind and propped his chin on her shoulder. "She'll enjoy losing though."

"Not as much as I'll enjoy winning," she murmured in a saucy tone, low enough that only he and Caroline were able to hear the words.

"Do I want to know?" She raised an eyebrow, voice strong despite the flush on her cheeks.

"Just know that I now have two very good reasons to make sure her first word is mama." Elena reclaimed her daughter.

Astrid's eyes settled on Kol.

"There's daddy's littlest witch," he smiled. "Can you say dada?"

Astrid cooed.

"No, she's gonna say mama," she grinned. "Can you say mama, baby, mama?"

"How about witch?" Bonnie twirled a lock of hair around her finger.

"I think she might be a little young for all of them." Jeremy rolled his eyes as he got to his feet. Homework beckoned him back to his own room, but he paused at the door to look back. "Just so you know I'll never stop laughing if her first word is 'hi'."

Kol waited until Jeremy's door shut, distracted by his daughter's smile.

"Did you run into any trouble at the bank?" Bonnie moved from the window seat and folded her legs to sit on the edge of the bed.

"I simply told the manager my father was recently deceased and I was in the process of closing out accounts." He shook his head, reached into his pocket and lifted a glass vial. "Minimal compulsion necessary."

"That's the spell?" Caroline shifted, giving the couple a little more space.

"That's it." Elena examined the dark liquid inside, steeped with magic. She had never seen the actual spell, too busy struggling with Mikael to really look.

"When are you going to use it?" Caroline stared at the potion that would turn her friend into one of the deadliest vampires on the planet.

She turned her head, met Kol's eyes and chewed on her bottom lip.

"Now?"

"You wanna transition now?" Bonnie's mouth popped open. "Shouldn't you plan this out a little more. New vampire's don't exactly have control, and you've got a new baby."

"I already know how to be a vampire, Bon. I know the bloodlust, and I know how to control it."

"And she won't feel her lost magic urging her to satiate the loss with more and more blood this time. Not that she ever gave in to bloodlust the first time around." Kol's hand flattened over her belly. "If you want to do this now, and your friend's don't mind babysitting for a bit, then we can do this now."

Elena gave them a questioning look.

"Are… are you sure?" Caroline's fingers twisted in the duvet.

"I'm sure." She kissed Astrid's cheek. "You wanna go play with auntie Care and auntie Bonnie, baby?"

She handed her off after another kiss and smiled as her friends left them alone. She waved her hand to gently close the door and took the vial, uncorking it and raising it to her lips. The wine that had been a favourite a thousand years ago tasted slightly off, but she didn't know if it was down to age or the spell using it is a vehicle.

Kol took the empty vial, laid it on the nightstand and turned her in his arms. Her legs fell on either side of his lap, arms draping casually across his shoulders.

"Is there anything else you wish to experience as a human?" His hands cradled her face.

"No; I just want to start our eternity." She kissed him softly.

He returned her kiss and flipped her over, laying her out gently on her back. She breathed his name against his lips.

"Relax, my darling," he murmured, dipping down to kiss her fluttering pulse. "Take a deep breath. This will hurt only a moment."

"I'm no stranger to pain," she sighed, eyes drifting shut.

"I do not now, or ever, wish to bring you pain." His mouth dragged over her throat, igniting a fire beneath her skin. His left hand stole under her shirt, resting hot and heavy on her hip.

She shivered.

"Only love…" he breathed, disturbing the hair by her ear.

"You have," she sighed, playing with the hair at the nape of his neck. Her voice took on a teasing tone as she brought him up to look in his eyes. "Do I have to call Finn again?"

"No," he chuckled, pressing his forehead to hers.

"It's okay," she murmured, tilting her head enough to nudge his nose.

He sat up and she nodded, closing her eyes when his hand touched her jaw.

She felt the swift turn of her head, and then nothing at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is one more chapter planned after this.
> 
> Then there are the prologue chapters that I wrote first which I think I'll post as separate stories connected to this one. They just need edits, but they cover the time from Elena leaving Mystic Falls with her family in the tenth century to when she became a vampire. It would be two stories; one set in Norway and the other in France.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I originally had this chapter and the next one together, but there was a natural stopping point in the middle so I split them, but the next (final) chapter is written and should be up a little later today, or tomorrow.
> 
> Then all that's left are the prequel chapters that I wrote. Each one is essentially a novella in it's own right, so I'm gonna edit them and post them as separate stories.

She remembered the bloodlust as stronger: a yawning emptiness that demanded fulfillment. In quiet moments she still felt the life draining from her first victim. Beatrice’s blood, hot and sticky, spilled from the corners of her mouth. She drank and she drank and she drank until nothing remained of the woman but a dried out husk.

In the moment the death had been a necessity, an unavoidable tragedy. An atrocious act she resolved herself to committing time after time for the remainder of her life.

Thanks to Elijah’s discovery of compulsion she had only been required to take one life out of necessity. Shame he hadn’t caught her in transition.

Compulsion saved her hands from being drenched in the blood of the innocent. And though she had never revealed the truth to her family compulsion had also saved her life. Rebekah and Kol remained blissfully ignorant of the compulsion they laid on her during her darkest hours, and they would remain in the dark.

Her longest deception, one Kol knew but had never grasped the significance of, stretched a thousand years.

Witches could be compelled.

She wouldn’t have been surprised if Klaus had performed a similar deception out of loyalty to his own species, and that everyone could be compelled.

She figured when she took the potion that compulsion would become her new best friend. She assumed there would be accidents and overwhelming instances of hunger. She thought her limits would be pushed to the breaking point and dozens of people would be subjected to her thrall.

Whether her former life as a vampire or the addition of magic was the culprit she didn’t know, but control came easier.

In the two weeks after turning she had stuck to a strict blood bag diet, funnelling her excess energy into raising her daughter and her marital bed. She put deep scratches in the headboard and Kol’s back, but nobody had been hurt.

“What are you thinking about?” Kol murmured. He flipped a page in Esther’s grimoire, using a finger to follow the ancient lines of ink.

Her nail caught in a groove on the headboard and smiled.

“Everything… and nothing…”

“Sounds riveting,” he chuckled.

She slipped under the arm he raised and rested her cheek on his shoulder. Her eyes scanned the page until a gurgle brought her attention to the video monitor on the nightstand.

It levitated towards them.

“Too far to reach?” He hummed, kissing her crown and running his fingers through her hair.

“I’m comfortable.” She reached out a hand to stabilize the small screen. Astrid’s mouth puckered, but she remained asleep.

Elena’s eyes caught the delicate silver chain around her wrist holding the teardrop pendent she spelled when they were in France.

“Do you…” She trailed off, nibbling on her cheek.

“Do I what, darling?” He twisted a lock of her hair. He lifted his eyes to the monitor and smiled at the sight.

“Do you think she might… that she might want to turn one day?” She drew her bottom lip between her teeth.

Kol rested the grimoire on his raised knee, considered her question and titled his head.

“I suppose it’s possible…” he reached for the monitor with his free hand, carefully tracing Astrid’s form with his thumb. “She is being raised by a family of vampires. It would make sense for her to want to join us. It would also make sense for her to want a completely human life. Which would you prefer?”

“Whichever makes her happy.” She drew patterns across his chest. “But… but if she wants to turn how do we handle that? Your mother’s spell is gone.”

“We could recreate it; we’ve got more time to figure that out now. If she wants to turn then that’s her choice, but not before she’s eighteen.”

“Recreate it?” She inhaled, counting the beats of his heart. “We’re lacking a crucial ingredient for that.”

“A Doppelgänger’s blood; I know.” He nodded. “We could find one. A Mikaelson witch and a doppelgänger are all we need.”

“And I suppose you’ve got a plan for finding a girl that might not exist?”

“Oh, one exists,” he chuckled. “You know that when one doppelgänger dies another is born. Somewhere in this world she’s walking around. She might be old, and she might be young, but regardless she is a blood relation to you, and blood relations are simple enough to find.”

“We can have the spell ready in case.”

Elena shifted, slouching down to curl her arm around his stomach.

“What if we can’t recreate it?”

“Then Finn or one of us can turn her.”

“If vampirism is what she wants I’d rather she be an Original.”

“As would I, so we’ll simply have to locate the doppelgänger and acquire some of her blood.”

“Do you think we should tell Nik about that?” She smirked.

“Doesn’t make any difference now, does it? It’s not like he can perform the ritual again.”

She heard the amusement in his voice.

“I suppose we have lots of time to work out the spell,” she folded her legs under her body, “one she might never actually want.”

“And in the mean time,” he laid the monitor on the bedspread then spread his hand on the page, “I think I have a way to awaken Freya.”

“She should awaken on her own in a week.” Elena nudged his palm away so she could read the spell again. “A Sanguinum knot…”

“Freya will wake on her own, but the sooner she is unbound from Dahlia the better. My dear aunt will come and we can kill her,” he sneered.

“About killing her…”

He shifted, lifting her chin with his hand.

“You wish for her to live?” A line appeared between his brows.

“No, I want that bitch dead,” her jaw clicked. “I want to burn her to a freaking crisp and break her bones beneath my heels.”

She sucked in a deep breath.

“But killing her will send her spirit straight to the Other Side, and if Esther could find a way back then sooner or later Dahlia will too.”

“Shall we turn her instead? We could let her and mother torture each other for eternity, or at least until they desiccate.” His thumb stroked her cheek. 

She shook her head slowly.

“Is it wrong that I want her to suffer more?”

“I’m all for a little torture, love, though I think your new friend’s will raise their brows. Did you have something in mind?”

She licked her bottom lip, holding it between her teeth and tongue as she considered. A slow smirk lifted her lips.

“Nik lied to Elijah… told him he dropped all of you at the bottom of the ocean.” The back of her mind raced, working out figures and plotting containment spells. “If she’s turned and dropped she’ll drown again and again until she desiccates; which will take a lot longer underwater.”

“You… are devious.” Kol watched her in silence for a moment.

“Is it too much?” She frowned.

“Just enough,” he assured her as Astrid started to cry.

“Why don’t you do that spell for Freya while I get Astrid and ask someone to donate a little blood?” She hopped off the bed.

“Who are you going to ask?” He stood, walking out behind her to retrieve rope.

“The first one I see.”

* * *

He held a length of knotted rope in one hand as he studied the spell a final time. The complex nature revealed the enchantment to be one of his mother’s later creations, pieced together shortly before her execution of their immortality; making it one of the few spells from his human years that he never got the chance to attempt.

The simplicity of the knots almost fooled him into thinking the spell would be easy, but unwinding one soul from another was never smooth sailing.

His sister and aunt were entwined. As angry as he was for her deception a century ago she remained the elder sister responsible for reuniting his family.

Ending Dahlia’s existence while they remained bound would end her life.

And, outside of last resorts, that was not an option.

“Okay,” he breathed, inhaling slowly.

His eyes drifted shut as he honed his senses in, ignoring every other sound in the house to focus on the representational magic in his hands.

When the world receded to a low hum he gently cupped the rope between his hands, sliding his palms to hold either end while the words fell from his lips.

Magic slithered along the fibres, over and under and over again, working free the complicated merging of two souls.

He opened his eyes a fraction to watch the knot raise and untie itself in midair. Both ends of the rope fell against his open palms.

Freya’s heart quickened.

Kol’s eyes cut to the left, landing on Finn where he stood tense on the opposite side of Freya’s bed. He perched on the richly embroidered comforter and saw his brother do the same.

Her lashes fluttered, lifting slowly. She surveyed her surroundings without truly making sense of anything. Dark wood should have pressed in close, suffocating her, but instead it rose in posts above her head directing her gaze toward the ceiling; smoother than the rough beams of her basement sanctuary.

There was more light too. She should have awakened in the darkness, candles at the ready to greet her, but instead a natural light danced across the ceiling.

She breathed in deeply, expecting a lungful of dust; no matter where she chose to undergo her slumber she always rose surrounded by neglect.

Clean air, tinted with herbs, invigorated her.

Her arms dropped from her stomach to her sides, pushing against soft cushion.

She sat up, blinking at the two men through a haze of sleep.

“Are you sure you did the spell right?” The elder asked, glancing sideways in concern at his brother.

 _Brothers,_ she patted the cream and gold blanket, slowly blinking.

“You could have done it yourself,” he sighed, running a hand through his hair.

“You always had more power,” the first shook his head. “I swear mother cursed us because she feared you’d grow more powerful than her. Are you alright?”

 _Brothers?_ She tilted her head, realizing he spoke to her. _My brothers?_

She opened her mouth to speak, managing a small croak.

The older one — he had to be Finn; she didn’t remember seeing him at Christmas — handed her a glass from a nightstand. She drank without thought, first sipping and then draining the water in three large gulps.

Moisture returned to her mouth, granting her the confidence to try again.

“Wh… what happened? Where am… am I?”

“You’re home sister.” Finn settled a hand on her shoulder, carefully taking back the glass.

“Home? But…”

“Suffice it to say, your plan experienced complications.” Kol dropped the rope on the end of the bed.

“Compli…” horror flooded her eyes, “Astrid…” She scrambled for the edge of the covers, trying to get up with muscles that hadn’t flexed in a century.

“Freya!” Kol blocked her escape. He held her arm and met her eyes. “She’s alright.”

“She was right here.” She didn’t hear him, eyes flicking wildly around the room. “She was with me.”

He gave a soft sigh, turned his attention to the door and called in a gentle voice. “Can you come in here, my love?”

A moment passed before the door clicked and swung open.

“There, you see,” he nodded as Elena stepped inside, Astrid in her arms, “she’s okay.”

Her hand rose to her mouth, stifling a sob.

“Freya?” Elena crossed the room and sat on the bed with her back to the pillows. Her knees brushed Finn’s leg as she readjusted.

“Astrid?” She breathed, trembling fingers reaching out.

“Mmhmm,” Elena nodded. “Things didn’t go according to plan, but everything worked out.”

“So far,” Kol added.

“So far,” she agreed.

“She… she’s so big,” a smile bloomed on her face, “hello, sweet girl.”

She touched a finger to Astrid’s cheek, prompting a sunny smile from her because while her memory was short she recognized familial magic.

“Big, and healthy and loved,” Elena agreed, smiling up at her husband.

“The question remains: are you alright, sister?” Finn frowned. “You’ve been asleep nearly a century.”

Freya’s ears perked up. “Nearly?”

“Nearly,” Kol nodded. His expression softened when Astrid cooed, and he allowed a moment to appreciate her happiness as she was surrounded for the first time by her entire coven.

“We’re not quite out of the woods yet,” Elena murmured, gently maneuvering Astrid into Freya’s tired arms. “She’s awake, and you’re returned, but we still have Dahlia to deal with.”

“Luckily, my beautiful bride has a devious plan in mind.”


	13. Chapter 13

Magic cast within a living coven felt different: less dormant, and more… just more. At any given moment one witch or another practiced and everyone else felt the effects. It was a tingle in the veins, a shiver down the spine, and a certainty of belonging.

Bonnie experienced the brilliant assurance a handful of times with her Grams, but assumed the feeling boiled down to family. In a way it had, but a much larger part came from joining with others.

She thought she could get by on her own without other witches and her ancestors; she never realized how wrong she was until the Mikaelson's invited her in.

A witch needed a coven.

She moved in a circle, pouring salt along the ground in the clearest spot, catching glimpses of Elena through tree trunks, Kol around the corner of the mausoleum, Finn behind tombstones and Freya at her left. Each of them started in one spot.

As one they stopped where the person on the right began, taking up a post to form a perfect pentagram.

Bonnie extended her arms, raising them high along the salt lines. Wind twisted through her hair, beckoned forth by the power the five of them held.

With each chant of the spell they felt the dark energy rise up from the earth. They molded it to their will, slowly turning the trauma of Esther's death into a spell they could use: a spell to stop magic.

Then, as if to prove their strength, the wind died down, that wonderfully harmonious sense of belonging disappeared, and little Astrid began to wail in her carrier.

"And that," Bonnie shook, bringing up her hands to rub at the gooseflesh on her upper arms, "is how you make a ground zero."

"Are we sure it will work?"

She spotted Jeremy on the bench as he scooped Astrid up and swayed with her in his arms.

"I was part of the spell and we channeled Astrid. First born magic is like a beacon to Dahlia." Freya rubbed her hands together. "She's on her way here."

Kol crossed the barrier to take his screaming child, singing softly in words she couldn't understand. Astrid's cries diminished to sniffles and then stopped altogether by the time Elena joined him and pressed small kisses to her wet cheek.

"I hate to poke holes in this plan," Klaus cleared his throat, gesturing with one hand to the barrier, "but will she not realize the moment she steps over the line what is happening?"

"If not before?" Elijah raised an eyebrow.

"For this to work she needs to step over the barrier." Freya stepped out, breathing a sigh of relief on the other side. "She is unmatched in power, and she will be furious to have lost her connection to me."

"If she doesn't step beyond the barrier we've no hope of killing her?" Rebekah folded Astrid's blanket, laying it in a neat square in the carrier.

"Not necessarily," Freya pushed her hair behind her ears. "We could kill her, but there is no conceivable way we would force her to consume vampire blood first."

"Making it a matter of time before she finds a way back, as a witch," Elena scowled. "She's getting beyond that barrier, even if one of us," her eyes cut from Klaus and Elijah to Rebekah, "has to shove her across it. I want her stripped of her magic and slowly rotting away."

Elena rocked, weight settling on her heels.

Bonnie crossed the barrier with Finn and slid her hands into her back pockets, waiting as patiently as possible while the time ticked loudly.

Kol fought to suppress a smirk in the face of Elena's vindictive nature, but even twelve feet away Bonnie could see the rage in his eyes. Part of her, deep down, wanted to judge, but she had accepted that she would never fully comprehend their range of emotions.

She would never, ever, let any one do as Dahlia had done and tear away a piece of her heart.

"Kol?" Klaus broke the silence, giving a pointed look to Astrid. "She'll be here soon."

"She's not going to be happy once this is on." He nodded, worked the baby's wrist free from her sweater and presented it to his wife.

Elena wrapped a silver chain around Astrid's wrist, fastening the clasp. She started sniffling a moment after.

"It's okay, sweetie," she flattened her palm on Astrid's stomach, gently shushing.

"We can handle a little fussing," Caroline stepped in, holding out her hands.

"And I'll cast the spell again once we get to the lake house; just in case," Bonnie picked up the diaper bag.

"Hopefully it doesn't have to be used," Elena murmured, turning her attention to her brother, eyes flickering toward Elijah, Klaus and Caroline. "Don't forget: you need to invite them inside."

"And Nik," Kol's eyes narrowed, "if anything happens to her I will drop you alongside Dahlia."

* * *

Freya paced the length of the mausoleum where it marked her mother's murder. Several miles away Esther desiccated beneath the earth unable to cause further harm to her children, and she felt no desire to reunite with the woman who traded her away like chattel. The hatred for Esther rooted deep inside after a thousand years left to fester.

Her family understood her stance where their mother was concerned, but she doubted any one of them would accept her desire to be reunited with her father.

They knew the brutal man who chased them across time, instilling terror in their lives before they ever became vampires, but she still remembered the wonderful father who loved his children beyond measure. Deep down she thought Finn might remember him too; somewhere under centuries of pain and torment.

Not that their opinions mattered. She couldn't reunite with her father anymore than she could bring back her lost child.

All that mattered now was removing her final 'parental' figure from the world.

Her eyes cut to Elena and Kol where they waited on a stone bench. His rigid spine and her tapping foot proved the only outward signs of their anxiety.

"You're like to wear a hole in the earth, sister." Finn leaned in the open door of the mausoleum. Compared to the other witches in attendance he appeared perfectly calm, but he had also never experienced the profound loss of losing his power, having adjusted as quickly as possible to life without.

"Perhaps she'll stumble into it," she muttered, rubbing her upper arms. She had never before felt as vulnerable as she did in that moment.

"Perhaps," Rebekah agreed.

She shifted onto the balls of her feet, back onto her heels and then moved across the barrier.

"Freya?" Elena rose from the bench.

"I just… I need to breathe a moment," she tipped her head back, drinking in deep breaths of cold air; inside the barrier she had been drowning. Outside, magic tickled her senses, reforging her connection to nature.

She felt vibrations in the earth, sensed the delicate steps behind and shut her eyes. Elena's voice washed over her.

"It's hard," she breathed, inches from the salt line, "not being able to feel it."

"How did you manage it? All those centuries without?" Her fingers stretched towards the earth.

"I guess…" Elena let out a rush of breath. "I was mentally prepared for it. I knew what I was giving up."

"She handled it far better than I," Kol chuckled; the sound dark in the gloom. "I clung to the last remnant of my humanity, and when I lost her I didn't handle it well."

"I figured there was a reason you're known as psychotic, baby brother," Freya smirked, glancing over her shoulder.

Warm wind whistled through her hair, banishing her amusement.

"She's here."

Dark red flowers sprung from the earth, creeping up over trees and stone until the cemetery was bathed in blood. Her heart took off, summoning a cold sweat at the base of her spine.

She longed for the fashions of a century gone; long skirts to hide the tremble in her knees.

And then the hardened women who made her life a living hell stepped through the trees.

Her dark eyes swept the assembly.

"This is quite the family reunion you've managed." A cynical smile turned her lips as her eyes focused beyond Freya's shoulder. "Elena, wasn't it? You appear healthier than when last we met."

"No thanks to you," she bit out. "Elena nearly died after what you did to her."

"The fever would have dissipated in a matter of days," she waved a hand, "any further illness was no fault of mine."

"Like hell it wasn't," Kol growled, voice filled with menace.

"You abducted their daughter. You made us all believe her dead." Rebekah's fingers curled into a fist.

"Of course I did," she nodded, calm and collected. "Death seemed a less cruel fate than knowing your own mother had traded the girl away."

"She had no right to do that!"

Freya steadied with Elena's snarled words.

"Believe what you will, my dear," Dahlia smiled, almost kindly, "but know that my sister and I struck a bargain, and when I make a promise I keep it. I've only come here for what's mine, though I now sense she's not here. You've used a spell to hide her from me."

Freya bristled under the weight of her gaze, accepting the blame her aunt would never think to place elsewhere.

"You're not taking her," she flexed her hand, attempting to knock Dahlia off her feet.

The older witch chuckled, mirth dancing in her eyes.

"You think you can best me?" Her brows rose with her arm. "Your power is nothing next to mine."

Freya gasped, throat constricting painfully slow.

"You always were an ungrateful child. Always wishing for another life; never satisfied. I have waited centuries to repay your betrayal…"

Her knees buckled.

"Let her go!"

Through her darkening vision she caught sight of her brothers on either side.

The grip on her neck loosed. She collapsed onto hands and knees, gasping. Beyond the ringing in her ears she caught distant shouts and several thumps.

Feet came into view.

Somebody shrieked. The sound was distinctly feminine, but she couldn't tell if it was Elena or Rebekah. She suspected Elena because when she managed to blink and look up she saw Kol, grey on the ground, with a length of tree branch protruding from his chest. Finn wasn't better off.

She lurched forward, grunting in pain when her head collided with Dahlia's legs. Her aunt flipped backwards, landing hard within the circle.

She scrambled to her feet and stepped inside, voice a rasp. "You're not in charge here."

Dahlia pushed up onto her hands, eyes widening upon sighting the salt circle.

Freya spared a glance over her shoulder when she heard the sickening sound of wood being pulled from bodies.

Elena and Rebekah stepped into the circle.

Rebekah bit into her wrist, shoving the bleeding appendage between her aunts lips before she could move. After she swallowed the blood, Rebekah stepped back, making room for Elena.

Her hand curled around Dahlia's throat lightly at first, but then tightening as she whispered: "you messed with the wrong witch, bitch."

* * *

Water lapped the side of the yacht, sending a fine spray into the air. The mist carried a strong taste of salt that clung to limbs and lips.

Elena's tongue swept her bottom lip as she pointed out the sleek grey bodies chasing the boat's surf. In her arms Astrid watched, fascinated by the rise and fall of their marine friends.

"I see we've found a pod of dolphins," Kol's warm hand settled on the small of her back.

"They're having a race," she smiled.

"One we are destined to lose, I'm afraid."

"Are we there already?" She handed off Astrid, whose blue eyes never left the pod.

"The deepest part of the ocean." The yacht slowed as he pressed a kiss to Astrid's cheek. She huffed and made disgruntled sounds as the dolphins swam on. "Wave good-bye to your new friends, love."

She mimicked her dad's hand motion and then brought her fingers to her mouth as they started towards the back of the yacht where the rest of the family waited with Dahlia's coffin.

Astrid tucked her head into Kol's neck and yawned.

"We may have to take her to sea world when she gets a little bigger." Elena caught the hair whipping in the wind and tied it securely in a knot at the back of her head.

"Sea World?" Kol laughed softly, brows lowered in confusion.

She stretched up on her toes to kiss his cheek.

"I'll explain later."


End file.
